Fang of the North
by colonelZ
Summary: Naruto disappears and the council claims he betray them. Sakura can't...won't believe it. What happens when she finally tracks down an old friend, who's got a very different account of what happened? NaruSaku, writing improves with time.
1. Gone

**Disclaimer: in no way shape or form to I own Naruto (duh)**

**A/N: **This is the re-written first chapter of my first every (and for the moment only) fan-fic. Hope you enjoy, review if you feel like it.

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Sakura stared blankly back at Ino. "What?"

Ino sighed sadly. Why did she have to be the one to tell her? "He's gone Sakura, Naruto's gone. The council says they caught him leaving during the night, they couldn't stop him."

Sakura stared back at Ino as her body shook with the sobs that threatened to spill out of her. It wasn't possible; Naruto would betray them. It was _Naruto_ for heaven's sake. It wasn't right, there was something she wasn't being told, there had to be. He must have just gone of some super secret mission or something, he would pull a Sasuke, would he?

The medic nin desperately searched Ino's expression for any hint that this might just be some cruel joke, for any sign that what she'd been told wasn't true.

Ino looked back at her sadly; a few tears of her own spilling down her cheeks.

The pink haired kunoichi was openly sobbing now, mostly out of anger that Naruto would just up and leave, and also out of sadness for the realization that had just started to hit home. All hope of Team 7 returning to normal was gone forever.

Ino was frantically trying to calm her friend while keeping her own despair at bay. She had grown fairly close to the blonde knuckle head since he'd returned from his training trip six months before. The news of his departure, she refused to except it as betrayal, was hitting her just as hard as it was the rest of the their friends.

"There's something else, Sakura. The council has overruled Hokage-sama's desire to send out a retrieval team. They say there's too much risk of it turning out like the one sent after Sasuke. They're saying the village is safer with him gone anyway, Hokage-sama said to tell you there's nothing she can do."

Sakura's fists curled into balls. She breathed deeply, trying to regain her composure as anger over threw her despair as the dominant emotion. She didn't care if she had to go and find him herself. She would bring Naruto back to Konoha. Angrily she whipped the tears from her eyes. It didn't make sense. Naruto would never leave Konoha in his right mind, something was wrong, she was sure of it.

Ino watched her friend's reaction warily; ready to move out of the way if the young kunoichi decided to unload her frustration on the table they were sitting at. The platinum haired florist couldn't help but feel waves of sympathy towards her friend. Aside from the cherry blossom, Shikamaru and Chouji were her best friends. If either of them left her, well, Ino didn't know what she would do.

Sakura stood up abruptly. Ino searched her face to see if she needed to move, but the kunoichi's eyes were hidden by her bangs.

"I'll talk to you later Ino, but I need to do something real fast." The rosette said as she stepped out into the streets of Konoha, quickly disappearing in the crowd.

"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Chouji asked, appearing a few steps behind Ino.

"I hope so." Ino said, as she looked worryingly after her friend. Ino didn't believe it either. She just couldn't fathom that Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja would simply up and betray Konoha. "_What are we missing? I know there is more to this. For Sakura's sake there has got to be more to this"_

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I hope you enjoyed it, At this point the next chapter is already up ( I know because i'm just re-writting this one so, yeah) Review if you feel so led)

Colonel Z


	2. Why Not?

**Disclaimer: Me? Own Naruto? Haha I wish**.

Nifty, okay, this is the re-written second chapter, yes it's still short, but not quite as crappy. Hope you enjoy it more than the first version, review if you must.

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"Come in," the blonde Hokage replied to the knock at the door. Tsunade didn't even bother to look up from her half empty sake bottle, and across the paperwork littered room. She knew exactly who was behind the door, and she also knew exactly why they were there. She mental braced herself for the barrage of flying objects that would soon be heading her way.

Sakura came inside the office and stood in front of her sensei. When Tsunade finally looked up, the look on her apprentice's face surprised her. It wasn't only devoid of the anger the blonde Hokage had been expecting, it was devoid of any expression. Not even her sea green eyes betray the war of emotions going on inside her.

"I'm guessing Ino has told you." Tsunade inferred, searching her pupil's face for any trace of emotion.

"Yes." Sakura struggled to keep her voice from revealing the mountain of tears and frustration barely barricaded behind her eyes.

"Sakura I'm sorry. The council has overpowered my decision to send out a search team with a unanimous vote. There is nothing I can do." Tsunade didn't even bother to act professional. The hyperactive blonde was a son to her, dealing with the fact that he had seemingly betrayed both her and Konoha was nearly too much to bear. It had been easier however, thanks to the three empty bottles of sake in the trashcan under her desk.

"Fine, they probably made the right decision then."

Tsunade couldn't believe what had just come out of her young apprentice's mouth. "What? Are you seriously going to let this just pass by with out even attempting to find out what caused him to leave?"

"If he left, he had a good reason. I doubt he wants to be bothered by an upset group of people who refuse to let him do what he wants." Tsunade could hear the bitterness building behind the kunoichi's words.

The Hokage gawked after the 15 year-old as she walked out of the room.

"She's taking that differently than expected."

Tsunade turned to see her perverted former teammate leaning against the window seal. She rounded on him eagerly. "Did you find him? Do you know where he went?"

"No." The silver haired author replied sadly. "There isn't a trace of Naruto any where, it's almost as if he's vanished into thin air."

Disappointed Tsunade grabbed her sake bottle and sighed. "I never in my life expected this to happen." She took a long drink from the bottle and looked over toward Jiraiya. "Want any?" the Hokage asked, offering him the bottle.

He looked at her and softly chuckled, "What do you think the answer to that question is?" he replied as he reached for the bottle.

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AN: yeah, like i said, it's still short and probably full of spelling errors, i didn't send my re-written stuff to my beta reader so...yeah, the horrible grammar and spelling are still in there.

If you really want too, click the purple button and review.

colonelZ


	3. I'll Find You

Hi! Yet another re-written chapter that isn't much different from the original but hopefully sounds better...not much to say, so just go ahead and read it.

**Disclaimer:** if i owned Naruto, Naruto would have quite a few more IQ points.

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Sakura sat down in her shower. The young kunoichi was struggling to understand the emotions coursing through her body. She had a lump in her throat, and the overwhelming urge to sob every time she attempted to speak. "_I've felt this way before." _She realized with slight surprise. "_This is exactly how I felt when Sasuke left, but why would I have the same reaction with Naruto?" _The teen let out a long sigh, there were far to many unknowns in this aggravating puzzle.

Hugging her knees close to her body, she finally let the waterfall of tears run down her face and mix with the water. She went over the entire situation in her mind once more, but the event seemed to make less and less sense. "I don't believe it" She said, speaking to the air. Her mouth stopped voicing her words as her muddled thoughts continued. _"There has to be a reason! Naruto's dream was to become Hokage, why would he leave the village like this? He didn't even give us a warning like Sasuke did. Someone would have noticed if he was planning to leave Konoha." _

The pink haired teen's memory drifted back to the night she'd run into Sasuke as he was leaving. As she thought about it, she realized that her feelings for the Uchiha had wained over the past three years. The sense of urgency in retrieving him was lost as well. Sakura knew that, thanks to a well-placed punch from herself and Naruto's interference in the Uchiha's path, Sasuke was safe for another three years.

Her memory of the mission pointed her thoughts once more toward the blonde haired ninja. Sakura wished fervently that she would wake up and find it all a dream. She wanted so badly to run after her teammate, but knew that such an action would be futile.

Sakura sighed again as she stood up and turned the water off. She grabbed a towel as she stepped out of the shower. Wrapping her self in the comforting clothe as she looked out the window towards the lively city. "I'm going to find you," she promised to the blonde shinobi she knew was far to gone to here her, "and I'm going to find out why you left. I'm going to bring you back to Konoha, even if it takes years and I have to drag you back 200 miles by your ankles. And I don't care what you, or the council has to say about it."

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Sakura sighed with pleasure as she flopped down onto the hotel bed. "_Ahh Bed, sweet bed, I love you so much!"_

Sakura had been running almost around the clock for nearly two weeks. Tsunade had sent the kunoichi to gather information in a small northern village near the mountains that bordered the shinobi land.

Having finally reached her destination, the pink haired ninja was ready for some much needed sleep. If only she could fall asleep in the first place, she mused as the insomnia that had become almost routine so many years ago set in.

Her mind wandered to the oh-so-familiar topic a certain orange wearing knucklehead.

"_I've been playing detective for three years now!" _the pink haired kunoichi thought angrily. "_Three years and I have no idea why he left, or even where he is. Why can't I at least track him down?"_ Sakura had been searching non-stop for Naruto ever since he left.

The search had not gone far, it was as if the hyperactive blonde had only been a figment of everyone's imagination. Grimacing in frustration at the direction her thoughts were taking, she pushed all thoughts out of her mind, eventually drifting off into a dreamless slumber.

Nine hours later a very groggy Konoha jonin stumbled out of her hotel room. Sakura yawned as she straightened up and jogged lazily down the stairs. As the kunoichi stepped out into the open she shivered with the cold. She scolded herself for not bringing warmer clothing.

The rubbed the bare skin on her arms as she focused on her mission. _"Okay. The best place to ask questions or eaves drop would I guess is the local club." _She looked at her watch. _"Two pm. No one interesting should be at a club until about eight, so I have about six hours to do whatever I want." _Sakura looked up and down the long narrow road.

People were busy going about their normal business, hustling from one shop to the next. She noticed how different their attire was, they were obviously dressed for the weather. Instead of the long-sleeved shirts under the green vests, people here seemed to wear jackets, coats, and long pants with closed toed shoes instead of sweats with sandals. _"Ha, I wonder how obvious it is I'm not from around here? I probably stick out like a sore thumb!" _The jonin laughed at herself, as she decided to get some food. After about ten minutes of aimless wandering the pink haired nin finally entered a randomly picked restaurant.

The wind seemed to push her through the door. The kunoichi was greeted politely by a black haired hostess and escorted to a table. She looked over the menu, her eyes lingering sadly on the word 'ramen' before moving on.

Sakura looked up at the sound of rushing wind and the chime of a bell. A man walked casually into the restaurant. He wore a long black coat, with black slacks and a business worthy shirt and tie. The man smiled politely at the hostess and proceeded to the table directly behind the pink haired teen.

"Sorry I'm late." The man said apologetically to the man that had already been seated.

"You better have a good excuse, Auoshi." The sitting man retorted bitterly.

"Unluckily for you, I do." Auoshi stated.

His friend must have made a face of some kind, because Auoshi's response sounded guilty and downcast, "Yup, Fang got us again. The same team as last time too. I've already admitted they're good for discovering our," he paused, as if searching for the right word, "imports, once, but this is getting ridiculous. We need a new plan to smuggle products into Satarima."

Obviously illegal Sakura thought, listening in.

The man let out an audible sigh. "Do we have any of the shipment left, or did Fang get it all?"

"They took it all. It's annoying really, there's only one team that can catch us, but Gyro's getting smart and putting them on patrol more frequently." He stopped. "Are you sure we should be talking about this in public?"

"It's fine, even here, no one has a clue what's to the north. People think it's only wilderness beyond these borders. They've got no idea that if they followed the mountains north for 20 miles or so, they'd run into Fang, and then seven other cities if they kept exploring. So they found all six shipments, huh?"

"Yes." Auoshi regretfully admitted. "Once they ran into the first one, it took all of three seconds to start a search of the area."

"Ever think your men could just be careless, or maybe even stupid?"

"No way in Hell." Auoshi replied, offended. "Every one of those men was picked out and trained by yours truly."

"Then maybe you're a bad teacher." The man replied sourly.

"I am not!"

Sakura could tell Auoshi's temper was rising. He was obviously the type of person who thought highly of himself. If he was willing to admit someone had foiled him, then they'd probably made him look like a downright fool.

Auoshi screamed in protest, "It's that stupid blonde bastard, with the whisker marks on his cheeks!"

The pink haired kunoichi went ridged, eyes wide with the importance of Auoshi's words. Automatically her body put every ounce of its energy into listening to the conversation of the two men.

"For freaking two years, ever since he started missions with Fang he's been a pain in the ass. He saw through my best smuggling pattern! And that stupid fox of his, I swear it can smell contraband from 50 miles away! It's ridiculous, I mean Gyro's bloody wolf girl of a daughter was pretty good, but even she never caught us! It wasn't until she teamed up with that blue eyed, blonde, son of a bitch that our problems started. I don't even think he's human. My men say that when he gets angry the whisker marks get really thick, his eyes turn crimson and his partner has to calm him down!"

Sakura stared at the seat in front of her. It was definitely Naruto they were talking about; there could be no doubt. The teen could not believe her luck. In a matter of minutes she'd found half of the answers she'd been searching three years for. The jounin didn't even bother waiting for her food. All thoughts of hunger had run from her mind.

She raced back to her hotel as fast as her legs would carry her. Bursting through the door she immediately began packing her things. The kunoichi knew exactly what she was going to do. There would be hell to pay for abandoning her mission later, but she had a feeling the Hokage would understand.

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Okay, i tried to make that one longer (again, it's still kinda short but oh well.) Anyway, i didn't change much in this chapter, but hopefull it reads a little better.

If you want to, I have no problem with people reviewing.

colonelZ


	4. Saved?

**Disclaimer: uhhhhhh,no, i do not own naruto, and you should probably know that already.**

yeah, I re-worked this chapter a little bit too, like i did with 1-3. This really isn't all that different, but I add a few things that might make it more believable. Hope you enjoy it.

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Sakura shoved her things into her bag, racing out of her hotel room. The teen ran into the street and turned to face the mountains that bordered the city as they stretched through the continent. They stood directly north of her position, looking dark and ominous with their tall summits submerged in thunderous black clouds. The kunoichi shivered with anticipation as she headed out of the city.

Ten minutes later Sakura stood at the foot of the mountains, gazing in awe of their astounding height. "_Holy crap. I thought they were big in the city. These things are colossal!" _She shook her amazement from her head, and centered her thoughts around what she was about to do. Oh course the obvious problems came to mind; would they let her into the city? What if she was found by a patrol? What if she got lost? Who knew, it might not even be Naruto the two men were cursing.

Stubbornly, the pink haired jounin pushed back her doubts; her heart clung to the hope that she might only be a few miles from the hyperactive blonde. Strengthening her resolve, the teen set off towards the north.

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The kunoichi was unwilling to stop before she reached her destination. She had been running through the forest at the base of the mountain range for nearly two hours, and hunger and fatigue were definitely setting in. The kunoichi berated herself for not eating before she began her little adventure.

Letting her thoughts wander a little, she considered the possibility of having to search up and down mountains for the city. At first, she had logically assumed that city was more likely to be at a low altitude than a high one. A high altitude would provide protection yes, but it would also make a city harder to reach, and secluded. Now, she wasn't so sure.

Sighing, the pink haired teen decided to put most of her thoughts towards memorizing her surroundings.

The woods she was running through were magnificent. The trees were gorgeous, tall and strong. Sakura was surprised at the variety and density of the forest, no two trees of the same type stood together. It gave off an air similar to that of a garden, painstakingly groomed and watched over by a caretaker.

As the Konoha jounin continued to observe her surroundings her senses became immediately aware that she was not alone. She jumped back just in time to avoid what would have been a devastating punch to the head. She landed, instantly going into a defensive stance. She looked through the swirling dust to study her attacker, or six attackers. All of her senses instantly sharpened to full capacity.

The initial assailant was now standing up to his full height and turning to look at the teen. His five friends had circled around her, crouching in the trees. They wore ANBU type masks with northern style clothing: matching black baggy pants and loose black t-shirts.

"Who the heck are you?" The kunoichi asked loudly, irritated that someone was delaying her.

"I think we should be asking that question." The man standing in the clearing replied bitterly. "You're to obviously not from around here, and we can't risk you telling anyone about our little operation, so unless you want you ass handed to you on a silver platter, I suggest you start talking. "

Sakura had no idea what they were talking about, and she said so. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

The teen continued to stare at her adversary. Suddenly, she recognized the man's voice; she'd heard it before. It was Auoshi. The medic-nin gasped, realizing just how much trouble her little side trip had gotten her into.

"Ah, remembering now are we?" Auoshi sneered. "What, did you honestly think we wouldn't notice you'd been listening when half way through our conversation you jumped up and headed straight for the mountains? We are not stupid men. And on second thought, who you are doesn't really matter. Unfortunately for you, we can't let you leave these woods alive. Wouldn't want you telling on us now would we?"

"_Oh crap. I'm in way over my head here. I need a miracle at the least." _The teen's thoughts raced wildly. All of her senses were pushed as hard as they could, fighting the fatigue and hunger from her body. Her mind prepared to go up against six opponents, each more skilled than herself.

"_Ha, she's about to piss in her pants. She knows each of us could kick her ass in a one on one fight. Poor kid, she's got no chance." _Smirking under his mask Auoshi charged the pink haired kunoichi.

Sakura skillfully swung to the right to avoid the advancing ninja's fist. Deciding it best to give up on offense, she jumped into the air to doge an oncoming kick from behind. All six of the men were coming at her now. She quickly made a clone, using it to successfully evade a mid air attack. Her maneuver, however, placed her the direct path of another onslaught, sending her crashing into the ground.

Auoshi and his men left her no time to recover, launching a devastating combo at the stunned jounin. Sakura was hurled through the air, landing hard on her shoulder ten feet away from her opponents. Lightheaded, she staggered to her feet. She could not believe these men were beating her this badly. She had expected to lose of course, but also to do some major damage in the process.

The medic ninja did not appreciate getting her butt kicked by a bunch of arrogant drug dealers.

The teen was losing the fight to stay awake. Her head was in too much pain for her to try and heal herself. Not to mention Auoshi was ready to charge at her now, his mind focused on finishing her off.

The kunoichi didn't really care. She knew she would collapse before he reached her anyway. Auoshi's fist glowed with an unnatural light as he began his final attack.

As Sakura slipped into dark void of unconsciousness, a blonde ninja blurred into view and blocked Auoshi's fiery onslaught. The jounin couldn't believe her luck as she collapsed on the ground.

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Okay, not much has changed here, just a few things thrown in to make Sakura's defeat more believable (I hope). Not much to say, it's early and my brain isn't working but oh well. If there are any spelling errors or grammar errors, let me know, I didn't exactly send this to my beta reader before post.

If you want to review, than review, if you don't, fine by me. If you want to flame, be my guest. (not that anyone really has, which is good)

Colonel Z


	5. What Happened

Wow, how confusing am I? I skip three years, and then this chapter is three years in the past...oh well. I re-wrote this chapter too, this is probably the least changed of the five i worked on, but hopefully it's a little better. (and sorry to the people getting excited when this story keeps re-apearing at the top of the list)

oh yeah, **Disclaimer: you know i really think people realize i don't own naruto. and if you don't then...wow... you're retarded**

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Three Years Earlier, Akatsuki Base.

Naruto woke up, with his entire body screaming in pain. At first he attempted to stand, or at least sit up, but every time he tried to move, his aching body protested with agonizing waves of misery. He soon abandoned the attempt, panting with exhaustion. Eventually however, he mustered enough energy to move his pounding head enough to get a good look around.

The blonde genin was in a dark, cold, concrete cell, probably underground. He was sprawled out on his back with no restraints. _"Who ever put me in here knew there was no way I would be able to move." _The normally hyperactive ninja thought. "_Speaking of moving… hey Kyuubi!!!"_

"**What now you aggravating little shrimp?"**

"_Hey for your information I'm not a such a shrimp anymore."_

"Maybe to other humans your not, with me it's hard to notice any change, shrimp. Anyway, what irritating reason do you have for bothering me this time?"

"_Why can't I move? I should have been healed by now."_

"I've already done quite a bit, idiot. I can't do much more with out leaving you in worse shape than before. However, if you want me to anyway, for once I'd be ready and willing. 'Be easier to get out of this stupid seal with out you to get in the way, shrimp. Do you even remember who kicked your ass?"

"_Akatsuki right? Kisame and Itachi?"_

"**Bingo, shrimp."**

Naruto groaned. He also remembered how he'd ended up fighting Itachi and Kisame. "_Stupid council. Can't solve their own problems, and have nooo issues with making a backroom deal with people they're supposed to be enemies with." _The blonde painfully remembered how the council had traded him over to Akatsuki, no regrets about it at all. He doubted they'd told Tsunade about it, there was no way she would have let them. Well, he hoped she wouldn't have anyway.

The worst part about the entire situation was, well several things were currently competing for that top number one slot on the problem list.

First, he had a limited amount of time before Akatsuki tried to extract the Kyuubi from him. Second, everyone in Konoha probably thought he was dead or had betrayed the village. Even if it was the later however, he doubted the council would allow search teams. The way he remembered it, it was pretty darn clear where his fight with the two Akatsuki members had taken place, meaning it would be to easy for a search team to figure out what happened. And third, he had no idea where he was, so even if he managed to heal in time and try and escape, any plans he could make would have to be short term. Akatsuki definitely had home court advantage.

Again the teen attempted to move, and again it ended in tormenting after-effects. Desperate for alleviation from the pain, he went to his resident fox once more. _"Can't you do something about this?!" _He complained. _"There has to be someway to at least get rid of the pain. Hey, are you listening you stupid fox?"_

"**Yes I'm listening, and I'm a lot smarter than you for the record. I was trying to ignore you but apparently that's impossible these days. Anyway, as for the pain, of course I can get rid of it idiot. I can even give you the strength to bust out of here and make a run for it." **Naruto started to reply but the Kyuubi cut him off. **"I'm just not very keen on hearing you whine about the consequences later."**

"_What are they?"_

The fox sighed. **"Honestly, you are so annoying. If I give you my chakra in this form, you'll be in total control. You won't go berserk like you do normally. However, it'll interfere with some of you're higher-level jutsus, causing them to have unnatural effects. Also, when the chakra runs out, if you're not taken care of by a highly skilled medical nin with in about half an hour, you'll die." **He paused to give his host a moment to take in the information before he continued. **"Considering we don't even know where we are, I'd say the chances of you getting good medical help in time a pretty slim."**

"_I'd rather die trying to escape than let them kill me with out putting up a fight. How long would it last?"_

"**Two hours or so."**

"_Do it."_

"**No way, are you serious?"**

"_As I'll every be, like I said, I'd rather die trying to escape than let them kill me with out a fight."_

The big fox sighed once more. _**"This is not going to end well,"**_ he thought, but to the hyperactive blonde he replied, **"Whatever shrimp, your funeral. Get ready."**

Naruto felt a surge of energy. The throbbing pain in his body seemed to cease automatically. _"Now this is more like it."_ The hyperactive genin thought, relieved that the pain had in fact gone away. He stood up quickly, aware that he had a very small window of time to get as far away from Akatsuki as he could.

The blonde walked over to the cell door. After studying it for a few seconds he found it weak and poorly made. More evidence to support the assumption that his jailors were positive he wouldn't have been able to move when he awoke. The jinchuuriki smiled, realizing it meant that he had the element of surprise on his side. Remembering Kyuubi's warning about the effect whatever he had done would have on his ninjustu, the teen decided to rely on physical strength as much as possible.

Kicking down the door, he gave the man out side his cell an obvious shock. Before the man could react Naruto placed a chakra filled punch to his ribs, breaking several of them and knocking the man unconscious. The hyperactive blonde immediately lost interest in the unknown man and raced down the hall.

Bursting through the door, he paused for a minute, trying to figure out which way to go. If he went left, it would lead to a bunch of doors going apparently nowhere special. On his right were stairs leading up. Assuming he was probably underground somewhere, the genin turned right and raced up the stairs.

As the blonde continued going gradually upward, at one point having to search hallway's for another set of stairs, he dismantled the men in his way. He knew he had to be getting near the top; he'd already climbed five flights of stairs. Nervously, he asked the Kyuubi,

"_How much time do I have left?"_

"**One hour and ten minutes shrimp." **Came the quick and insensitive reply.

Naruto picked up the pace. He still had a long way to go to insure the Akatsuki didn't end up with the Kyuubi. Not to mention he was becoming increasingly concerned with the obvious absence of his cloaked captors. "_This_ _is weird, where the heck are the Akatsuki? All of these losers are just staff or something."_

He spoke too soon.

Immediately he saw a clay bird fly toward him down the hallway. The following explosion set him flying into the wall.

Luck was with him today though; when the smoke cleared he saw the burst had knocked a hole in the wall opposite him. As the Kyuubi healed his minimal damage from the blast, Naruto realized Deidara was rushing at him from the side, followed closely by Kisame. Without hesitation, he jumped though the newly made window, and into the outside world.

The jinchuuriki ran about ten feet and jumped into the air, dodging what could have been a deadly strike from Kisame's gigantic sword. "Not so fast kid." Kisame stated coolly as he straightened up, preparing for a new attack.

"Yeah, wouldn't be good for us to loose you after it took freaking three years to capture you, yeah." Deidara said as he jumped through the hole his explosive 'art' had just made.

For once Naruto thought quickly. _" Crap! I'm totally screwed. I can't compete with these guys physically, and the Kyuubi told me not to use many jutsus. If I try to just out run them, that's no good either. They'd catch up to me in no time. I need a distraction. A big one." _Suddenly the teen got an idea.

He didn't even bother asking the Kyuubi if it would work. Wasting no time, he bit down hard on his thumb, drawing blood. Quickly doing hand signs he shouted, "**Kuchiyose no Justu!"** He slammed his hand down on the ground, and immediately knew something was wrong.

Instead of the usually rush of chakra being pushed out of him, the feeling he got was more of a pull. It was as if something was sucking his chakra in the opposite direction it was supposed to go, and taking him with it. The area around the blonde dissolved into a black abyss, and he began to drift into unconsciousness.

"**Sigh. You idiot, I told you not to do that." **The Kyuubi's irritated voice was the last thing he heard before the darkness consumed him.

Naruto awoke to a very alarming sight. As he opened his eyes, they made contact with the hard, cold, gray eyes of a fox, two inches from his face. The fox, seeing the human was finally back among the conscious, sat back on his haunches, removing his massive paw from the genin's chest. The blonde felt a surge of pain, the fox had been pressing down on his chest so hard it seemed as if it had broken at least one of his ribs.

Painfully the jinchuuriki sat up and looked at the massive fox sitting a few feet away from him.

"Well, well, well. The nine tails jinchuuriki is finally awake," Seeing the look of panic on the boy's face he added, "Don't worry blondie, you've still got a good 45 minutes before the Kyuubi's jutsu wears off." The teen was visibly relieved, but he stilled looked extremely confused. Almost immediately he began firing questions at the fox.

"Where am I? How did I get here? Why are you here and not Gamma Bunta? And who are you, anyway?"

"As for where you are, you're one of the few lucky souls who get to see where all of us who get summoned occasionally, hang out in between jobs. Also known as, The Summoning Dimension. You're here because your **Kuchiyose no Justu** backfired and instead of bringing one of the frogs to you, it brought you here. I'm sitting here and not a frog because you landed in fox territory. As for me, the name's Taka, king of the foxes. Basically I'm the fox version of Gamma Bunta, only I'm not that big. I can be, but I prefer to keep my size at merely a very large fox, much less conspicuous. Any other questions?"

The hyperactive ninja was currently in between emotions. On one hand he was almost terrified of the enormous fox beside him. It was even large enough to carry at least two people on it's back with out having to give up speed. He was still confused, but more importantly more than curious about the black canine.

The fox, or Taka, as he said his name was, so far showed the personality and mind set of a 19 year-old adventure hungry, adrenalin addict. His voice wasn't to far from that either. His fur was all black, and his eyes were a stone cold gray. Inquisitively he popped a question. "Isn't the Kyuubi the king of foxes?"

"No, a very common and annoying misconception. The Kyuubi's just a demon in the form of a fox. He in no way represents any of the foxes. Well except for maybe the old geezer who lives in the northeast cave. Never has an optimistic thing to say, so annoying."

He obviously liked the word annoying. _"Ha, it's like Shikamaru and the word 'troublesome'." _He thought. Aloud, he asked, "So how come I've never seen anyone summon a fox before?"

Unlike the Kyuubi, Taka seemed more than happy to answer the questions. "Because, and no disrespect to any of the other animals, but foxes in combination with the wolves, are the hardest animals to summon. In order to summon us a person would have to have a ridiculous amount of chakra. Finding someone with that much chakra is hard, we haven't seen anyone worth teaching how to summon us in over a hundred years. It's annoying really. Now you on the other hand, _have_ a ridiculous amount of chakra. If you weren't already enlisted to the frogs I'd teach you how to summon foxes in a heartbeat."

"What do you mean if I wasn't already enlisted to the frogs?"

"You can only summon one animal. Every group of animals uses the same jutsu and hand signs to be summoned. It's the contract you sign that depicts what animal you can summon. You signed the frog's contract so now you can summon frogs. If you signed more than one contract, every time you performed Kuchiyose no Jutsu, it would be totally random which animal would appear. Understand?"

"Nope, you totally lost me in the 'why' part. But I get the fact that you have to choose one animal and stick with it, I think."

"Good enough."

"So, can I switch which animal I summon, or am I stuck with frogs for life?"

"You can change animals, but there is a limit on how many times you can switch. Why, you wanna learn how to summon foxes?" Taka grinned, hoping the boy would say yes. The fox longed for the sweet smell of the real world once more. Plus, he had to admit, even though he'd only known him for fifteen minutes, he liked the kid.

"Sure. Why not? Gamma Bunta will probably be grateful for peace and quiet."

"Finally! Something that's not annoying. All right kid, you know the drill." The gray eyed fox got up and walked over to a near by tree. Gracefully, he stood up on his hind legs, leaning his forepaws on the tree for support. He stretched his head into the tree and brought his feet back down to the ground, with a massive scroll in his jaws. Taking his time, he returned to his previous spot and placed the scroll on the ground in front of Naruto.

Grunting in pain, the genin moved closer to the scroll, unraveled it, and proceeded to sign the contract, just as he had done 3 years ago with Jiraiya for the frogs. When he finished he rerolled the scroll and handed it back to the fox, who then put it back in the tree.

"Okay, congratulations kid, you can now summon foxes." Taka was visibly pleased.

"Now, I think we need to get you back into your world before the Kyuubi's jutsu runs out. Come on, I know a place where someone's sure to find you."

The blonde nodded in agreement. Ignoring the pain in his chest he stood up and followed the fox. The walked for five minutes, the hyperactive genin having to nearly jog in order to keep up with Taka's long strides. As the walked, Taka explained other aspects of the Summoning Dimension.

"Every place in this world corresponds with another place in your world. So however far we go in this world, you enter into your world the same distance away from where you were when you entered into this one. Understand?"

"No." Was the short reply. Naruto was to busy trying to keep up with the fox, and deal with the pain flowering in his chest.

Finally Taka slowed to a stopped. "Alright here's your stop kid!" The black fox turned to face the blonde. Grinning, he pushed his nose into the boy's chest. "Good luck kid, and summon me sometime okay?"

With those words the world around the hyperactive jinchuuriki dissolved once more into the black abyss. He closed his eyes as he drifted into unconsciousness. After what seemed like seconds he opened his eyes again. This time, he was surrounded by thousands of trees. While he was looking around, his body screamed in a sudden wave of unbearable, excruciating pain. He collapsed into the ground, and for the third time that day blacked out as he watched a pair of boots gradually get closer to him.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes. He shut them instantly again, as his face contorted in pain. A wave of pure and utter misery ran over his entire body. The blonde thought he had felt real pain while lying in a cell at the Akatsuki base. That was like getting a mere shot compared to this. He gritted his teeth, attempting to hold in the urge to cry out in agony.

Suddenly the pain lessened, a lot. The hyperactive genin felt the sensation of chakra flowing into him. It wasn't his chakra though, nor the Kyuubi's. Panting with the aftermath of the pain, he forced his eyes open, fueled by curiosity. A girl about his age was standing over him, her hands placed gently on his chest, her chakra flowing into him.

She gave him a pleasant expression, complete with a half-cocked smile. She had realized he was awake, and looking at her. "It's about time! I was beginning to think you would never wake up." She said speaking in at a low volume. Naruto liked her voice. It was soft, and rather low for a girl. He could have listened to her talk for hours. Although maybe that was simply because the only two personalities he'd talked to in forty-eight hours were both foxes.

Sighing, he decided to go ahead and ask the many questions he had nagging in his mind, but the girl beat him to it. "You've probably got a lot of questions, huh?" She said knowingly. He nodded, instantly regretted it, and let her continue; for once he was too tired to really say anything.

The girl happily took on the task of explaining what she could. "First off, you're in Fang. I seriously doubt you've ever heard of it. You don't have to worry though; nobody's going to hurt you here. One of our patrols found you collapsed on the ground. You were in really bad shape, it's both a miracle that you're alive, and a miracle that we found you when we did. My name's Lina, and I'm the best medic ninja here," She ended with emphasis on the 'best'. She looked at him with that half smile of hers again, as if not entirely happy to be where she was, but couldn't think of any place better she could go.

The jinchuuriki was mildly surprised. Lina had answered every one of his questions. Albeit they were standard questions asked by someone waking up in a strange room, and with a person they'd never seen.

Grunting as a sign that he'd at least halfway processed what she had said, he let the after effects of her healing jutsu take over, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

ha, yeah, so that's basically what happened to him. and yes i know, i doubt the Kyuubi would really do that for Naruto, but whatever, so it's an ooc fox. Anyway, i hope you liked it, for me and my update lengths this thing was a beast of a chapter. Hope you liked it,

colonelZ


	6. Naruto and Laughter

hey people, i'm sorry it took me so long to update, my life has been a mess lately, and school deciding to unload all it's crap on me doesn't help. so finally here's chapter 6! If it seems choppy to you, it's because i wrote it in like 4 different parts so, yeah. R&R please, t'would be highly appreciated. Also, yes at this point in the story Naruto is still technically a genin, Fang doesn't really do ranks.

**Disclaimer: at this point if you think i own Naruto, then you need help, lots and lots of help.**

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Sakura's eyes flickered open. After a couple seconds, they focused on a white ceiling, looming 7 feet above her. She was lying in a rather comfortable bed, more than likely in a hospital. Grimacing she re-closed her eyes and recalled the devastating fight with Auoshi and his team. Oddly though, she didn't feel the slightest amount of pain. In fact, she felt good. It was as if she was waking up from a much-needed afternoon nap. The teen sat up and stretched, yawning in the process.

"It's about time, I was beginning to think you would never wake up." A vaguely familiar voice announced quietly, in a joking tone.

The kunoichi looked to her right, and straight into the bottomless blue eyes of Konoha's number one, hyperactive, knucklehead ninja. The girl couldn't help but simply stare at him. After three years of searching, she was five feet away from him. She didn't even look away when the humongous black fox, curled up in the corner, unraveled and jumped lightly onto the end of her bed, then proceeded to re-curled himself.

The blonde ninja laughed. "What, are you just going to stare at me all day? You could say something you know." He grinned at her. "Oh, and I think he wants you to scratch him behind the ears." The jinchuuriki added, gesturing towards the massive fox who had just moved his large head a few inches closer to Sakura.

Mechanically, the teen obliged. She still didn't dare look away from her former teammate. Her eyes barely blinked. She was almost worried that if she looked away, or closed her eyes, he would disappear. Several times she tried to speak, and several times the words died in her throat. Finally she managed, one full sentence, and the beginning of several others. "I-i…. Y-you…. W-what…. H-how?" She stumbled over her words, before finally saying, "Uzumaki Naruto where the hell have you been?"

Naruto was surprised. He'd honestly expected to spend the next week and a half in the hospital after this meeting. Her tone was what stunned him the most. Unlike the anger he'd been anticipating, it was filled with relief, and even a little sadness. Sighing, he stood up and walked across the room. He pushed aside the black animal's tail and sat down on the edge of her bed. "I have a lot of explaining to do don't I?" He said, half smiling, and staring at the wall opposite them.

"Yeah." The kunoichi replied. "You have a _lot _of explaining to do."

And so the blonde shinobi began the long explanation of why exactly he was there, and not in Konoha.

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Naruto lay back on the bed, stopping for a little while to let Sakura grasp all of what he'd just told her. Beside him, the kunoichi was sitting up in bed; absently scratching the ears of the enormous black fox whose head was currently residing in her lap. It was hard for the blonde to read her expression, but he'd stopped because she looked like she was a little overwhelmed.

The pink haired jonin was overwhelmed. She couldn't believe what Naruto had been through over the past three years. Her heart swelled with emotion just imagining the pain her former teammate had gone through. It seemed like the hyperactive ninja had done well after being found by the Fang patrol.

Glancing at the blonde, who was staring at the ceiling, she noticed how much his appearance had changed. He looked like a northerner. Instead of southern shinobi sandals, he wore close-toed boots. He wore full-length black denim pants that were slightly baggy, instead of his usual bright orange ones. His shirt was different as well. His torso was covered in a fish net shirt, with a plain white one over it. Around his waist was a light black jacket, and his Konoha protector was tied tightly around his upper left arm.

Naruto was also big. Sakura guess his height had to be nearing 6 feet at least, and while he wasn't body-builder big, he was definitely on the larger side of most teens. The ninja stretched out in front of her was a far cry from the boy who had once been on team seven. _"He's matured too, I can tell by the way he talks. I wonder how much his personality has changed, I hope not much." _The pink haired teen thought to herself, as she nodded for the jinchuuriki to continue.

Seeing her nod, the radical blonde continued. "So, after I woke up the first time, I spent another three weeks in the hospital, sleeping through most of it. After Rei finally deemed me capable of leaving, we went to see her father. Her dad is basically the Kage of Fang; only here it's a monarchy. It's a screwed up monarchy too. Gyro is one of the most stubborn; hard to get along with people I've ever met. He may be a good political leader but his people skills leave much to be desired.

Anyway, the people here don't exactly want to interact with the south. Fang's not the only city that feels that way; it's just a northern thing. They enjoy their seclusion. Because they enjoy it, they want to keep themselves separated. However, as you probably know that's nearly impossible. It's one of the many reasons why they have so many patrols running around.

"There is another problem with introversion, what to do if a patrol finds an injured ninja on one of their rounds. No one wants to just leave them there to die, or fend for themselves, but they don't want too much interaction with foreign shinobi. To keep the city a secret, Gyro developed a system. No one truly liked it, considering it's rather cruel, but they saw it as necessary for the survival of Fang.

"What Gyro proposed they do, was to take in the injured shinobi, giving them the appropriate medical attention. When they returned to full health, they would be given a choice. They could either join Fang, working as shinobi under Gyro and never return to their hometown, or... well, let's just say you would have to be suicidal not to take the first choice."

"So you're saying they could either join the city, or... die?" the medic ninja asked hesitantly, fearing the answer.

"Yeah." Was all the whiskered boy said in reply.

"Naruto, you had to choose, didn't you?" The teen asked, knowing the answer as the words left her mouth.

"Yeah" was all that the blonde replied.

Sakura couldn't believe what she'd just heard. _"He can't ever go back? No, there has to be a way for him to come home." _Suddenly, the kunoichi gasped, her eyes widening. "Naruto," She began fearfully.

"Don't worry" the jinchuuriki cut her off, anticipating her question. "I've already talked to Gyro about it, he's going to let you go back to Konoha."

The pink haired teen breathed a sigh of relief, then resumed staring at the blonde. The boy was leaning onto his massive fox, with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head. He reminded the jonin of Shikamaru, lazy and laid back. The genin couldn't quite pull of the entire act however; she could see his hyperactive personality was still there. _"Ha," _she thought, _"He can't wait to get up and start moving around."_

After mussing a moment more over her former teammate, Sakura's thoughts came full circle. Her mind searched for a way to bring him back with her as the two sat in silence. After looking for so long, there was no way she was leaving with out him. The teen inwardly sighed in frustration, and decided to change the topic of thought.

"So, you're the one who saved me from Auoshi and his, uh…'friends'?"

The blonde grinned, still keeping his eyes shut. "Yeah, it was funny too, I think Auoshi may have actually crapped in his pants when he saw me."

Sakura couldn't help but laugh. From the way she'd heard the smuggler talk about him, she didn't doubt for a second it was true.

"I was surprised to see you." The genin sprawled out in front of her continued. "It almost made me crap in my pants. What were you doing this far north?"

"Looking for you." The girl replied, stifling a burst of laughter. "I had been sent on a mission to gather information in a town near the foot of the mountains. I was in this restaurant getting something to eat and I overheard them talking, okay, yelling about you. They mentioned where you were so, I headed that way."

"And they knew you'd been listening, so they followed you to get rid of a witness."

"Yeah, that's pretty much how it went."

"Wow and I though I had a knack for getting into trouble with those guys."

Sakura burst out laughing again. It was something Naruto could always make her do; laugh. She hadn't had an outburst like this in almost three years, despite Ino and Chouji's best efforts.

Suddenly, she remembered the fox in her lap. "Ohhh, you must be the notorious Taka huh?" she asked, continuing the light-hearted mood.

"Of course. Who else would the blondie over here be summoning? If he didn't summon me, having a person who could summon foxes would just be plain annoying. And I don't like annoying. It's very annoying."

Sakura erupted in laughter. In front of her Naruto was laughing as well, a huge grin on his face as Taka wagged his tail, pleased with himself.

* * *

Ha, okay, this was a fairly lighthearted chapter, except for the whole, naruto can't go back to konoha thing. i hope you liked it. anyway; yeah, if my characters seem a little ooc to you then, well, please try and **deal with it.** By the way, Taka is not in this story to simply provide comic relief, just so you know. when the next chapter will be out i have no idea. i'm sort of getting some writer's block when it comes to this story. anyway, thank you for ready, (and review for pete's sake people! i mean come on, who here has met a pete they don't like? okay well i have but that's besides the point, REVIEW! please)

colonelZ


	7. Lina

hi! i have chapter seven! i feel very proud of my self. grins yes i know it took me some time, and it's not very long but if you want to complain about the length, then go a head, i'll just ignore you though, this is four freaking pages on Word prosessor so yeah. anyway i hope you like it; R&R please!

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Naruto.i **wish** i **did **though.

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"So," Naruto said, after both he and Sakura had somewhat stopped laughing, Taka was still inwardly laughing his tail off. "Do you think you're up to walking around town?"

Sakura thought for a moment, she was a little tired, but there was no chance of a nap after her recent explosions of uncontained laughter. '_Besides,'_ she thought, '_I really want keep talking to him, he seems like he's changed so much.'_ "Why not?" She finally answered with a grin.

The blonde grinned back at her. "First though, I suggest we find you some other clothes to wear, you might get rather cold in that." He said, pointing at her. The pink haired teen had on her usual no sleeve, skirt ensemble.

"Why though? I was fine before." She asked.

"Before, it wasn't snowing." He countered, smirking playfully.

Confused, the medic nin leaned over the side of the bed to look out the window. The jinchuuriki was right. The unfamiliar city she saw outside her window was covered in a soft white blanket of foot deep snow. "Oh." She said, slightly surprised. The last time she'd seen the sky, it had been such a clear blue with no clouds in sight. Just how long had she been unconscious?

"Surprising isn't it? You've only been out a couple of days and we've already got a foot of snow." The whiskered teen remarked, looking out the window from behind.

Sakura turned her head to see the blonde standing behind her, staring out the window as well. "So, umm how am I going to get clothes? I kind of didn't bring anything warmer." She asked him sheepishly, embarrassed that she was unprepared for any situation as shinobi were supposed to be.

"Eh, I'll ask Lina if you can borrow something of hers." He said absentmindedly, obviously focused on something going on outside the window.

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

Naruto's attention returned to the mid-sized room. "I'm going to go find Lina and get you some different clothes, 'k?" He said, turning to walk out the door.

"Okay." The pink haired jounin replied as she watched him leave. The teen was unsure of what else to say. '_I don't know how he'll react anymore, it's hard to think of the right things to say.' _She realized, as she watched his back fade from view as he soundlessly closed the door.

"Annoying, isn't it?" Came the 19-year old like voice of the black summon still stretched out on the hospital bed. "Not knowing quite what to say anymore."

Sakura looked down at the fox beside her, startled, '_Does he always know what people are thinking?'_ She wondered. "Yeah, it is." The cherry blossom replied after a while.

The teen felt something very heavy move back into her lap. She looked down to see two large gray eyes looking hopefully up at her. She laughed, "Do you ever **not **want attention?" She asked him playfully as her hand once again began to scratch the massive K-9 behind the ears. "And what was with the sad puppy dog face you just gave me, are you part dog or something?"

The fox wagged his tail at the response. "Well," He began, moving so Sakura's fingers were in just the right spot. "Dogs are technically cousins of mine, as are wolves, but I guess you could say we differ from family tradition a little bit. Annoyingly, we are also cousins to the coyote but we all just sort of try and ignore them. As for attention, I only like it when it's not the painful sort. And, far from annoyingly, when it comes to the scratching the ears gig, I must say Cherry you do a great job. Nothing like that wolf chick who always does it too hard, now that is annoying. Mind you it still feels rather good, it simply pales by comparison."

Sakura laughed, she was going to like Taka, except for maybe the fact that it was technically his fault Naruto was stuck here; then again it was also thanks to him that Naruto was alive. She was curious about Lina, too. Obviously she was both the person who had healed the hyperactive blonde when he first came to Fang, and the person he worked with on patrol. She wanted to know who Konoha's number one most surprising ninja had been spending so much time with.

While one teen's thoughts were lost to curiosity, the other came back into the room, visibly ticked off at something, or someone. In his hand was a gym bag filled with clothes. He walked over to the bed and leaning back onto the firm mattress. With a sigh he let his current frustration go. Grinning at some internal joke he handed the bag to Sakura. "Here," he said, as she took the bag with her free hand. "She gave me several different things, so you can take your pick. It's all pretty warm though."

"From the look on your face when you walked in she gave you a bashing to go with it." Taka noted, slightly annoyed as Sakura stopped scratching his ears to look through the clothes in the bag.

"Yeah, well, remind me to kill Kai when I find him."

"Why, what did Eagle Boy do?"

"Do you remember the 'bucket of water dropping on you from on top of a door' faze he finally got over last year?"

"Oh, no, not again."

"Well apparently he didn't quite get over it. He dumped one on Lina and she thought I did it."

"Didn't you go through one of those when you were little?" Sakura asked the only other human present, taking interest in the conversation.

"Yeah, only I was nine." He retorted.

"This guy is 18." The fox informed her. "It's really annoying when you have to look out for flying objects because of an 18 year-old. It's bearable when it's a kid, but this is just kind of ridiculous. Did you manage to convince wolfie that it was her brother who pulled the juvenile prank?"

"Yes eventually. 'Still didn't get me out of a verbal bashing."

Sakura officially couldn't wait to meet Lina.

* * *

Sakura opened up the gym bag once more. Naruto had left the room, dragging Taka along with him, to give her some privacy while she changed. The kunoichi curiously pulled out each piece of clothing in the bag and laid them out on the bed. The items were certainly warmer than her current attire, but the pink haired teen couldn't help but wonder if they were snow worthy. '_Oh well. At least it's an improvement.' _She thought as she selected a white, thick-strapped tank top. Removing her own clothes, she swiftly pulled the top down over her head. The tank was a little long, but hugged close to her curves. It stretched a little over her by now generously sized bust; it must come with the trade, considering her sensei.

She picked up a black jacket with a high collar. She put it on over the tank, leaving it unzipped for the time being. Honestly the teen didn't think her body could take the heat if she zipped it. The jacket was impossibly warm, the interior, as she had failed to realize before, was fur, velvety soft creating more heat than any other material the girl could think of. The sleeves, as if to double as gloves, hung down over her wrists, ending at her knuckles.

Sakura now had no doubt the clothes were meant for the current weather situation. Blood rose to her cheeks with the sudden warmth of her body as she reached for a full-length pair of kaki colored pants. She quickly stripped off her skirt and donned the pants. They were, like the preceding jacket, unbelievably warm, and a few inches to long. Otherwise, they were comfortable, made out of a material unknown to the jounin. The kaki bottoms flared slightly at the bottoms, made to fit loosely over thick boots.

Grimacing, she noticed the only part of her body that wasn't ridiculously warm. She looked down at her cold feet and realized she would need shoes as well. Sighing, the medic nin, now fully dressed, walked out the door into the hallway, barefoot. She was surprised to find that Naruto and Taka were no longer the only ones waiting on her.

A girl with waist length snow-white hair was leaning against the wall in front of her. The girl looked up curiously, meeting the Konoha shinobi's equally curious stare. The kunoichi's silently studied each other.

Sakura, of course, had hair the color of cherry blossoms that ended between her chin and shoulders, much like it had hung three years ago. Sea green eyes complemented the pink hair that surrounded a facial structure that hadn't noticeably changed while Naruto had been 'missing'. In fact, her figure hadn't really changed, just matured with the last few years of adolescence.

The other, had hair the color of the soft white powder covering the ground outside. It hung around her waist, with thin strips of white that were cut shorter, framing her tanned face. Her eyes were gray, but unlike Taka's they were warm and inviting. She was taller than Sakura by a few inches, yet had basically the same figure, though not as gifted in the upper regions of the feminine physique. She sported long black pants that hung over casual, black, close-toed boots. She wore an equally black sweater that hugged close to her body; sleeves going down to the knuckles like the jacket Sakura had on.

"You must be Sakura!" The white haired teen exclaimed cheerfully in a musical voice, unable to remain quiet any longer. She was grinning from ear to ear, perfectly content where she was. "I'm Lina." Lina introduced her self politely, taking a step away from the wall and holding out her hand.

The jounin smiled as well, stepping forward to shake the eager girl's hand. "Hi, it's nice to meet you." She replied sheepishly, unsure of what to say. She needn't have worried; Lina took over the conversation happily.

"I'm so happy to finally meet you, I've heard lots about you! Oh yeah, I brought you shoes; I figure you'd need those, no since in going outside barefoot. As for clothes, feel free to keep borrowing mine! I'm glad they fit you so well; I was a little worried they would be to big for you but I guess not! Anyway, I have to take you shopping after Naruto shows you around, I have a feeling he can't really show you the feminine appeal of the village; even if I have dragged him through ever store from here to Vinci!" She paused to breath, grinning again

"Sure, sounds fun." Sakura replied to the completely unexpected rambling, Naruto wasn't kidding about the talking. She smiled back at the grinning kunoichi.

* * *

A/N: I hope you liked it! it's still choppy i know, i'm working on it. anyway; i wrote an extra conversation out on the computer while i was trying to think of how i would introduce sakura and lina,i decide not to go the route that involved using this conversation but i liked it to much to just delete it, so i thought i'd share some pointless banter with you! (warning this in no way will be in my story, though it is similar to what naruto and taka's reaction would be to this question)

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"So is Lina your, umm girlfriend?" Sakura asked, both embarrassed by her question and afraid of the answer.

Taka gagged, choking on the pretzel he'd just been given. Naruto froze, "Hell no." He stated firmly, shivering at the thought

"Why not?" The medic nin asked, surprised at the amount of reaction.

"She is way to annoying." The fox started off. "Missions are bad enough! You date her blondie and I eat you."

"No worries there" The blonde replied grimacing.

"What's so bad about her anyway? She seems nice." Sakura injected, secretly overjoyed with the two's reaction.

"She never shuts up." The whiskered blonde replied flatly, scowling.

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ha, okay i'm done for the next few days, i'm leaving for thanksgiving and will be miserable in what is quite possible the most boring city ever, but i'll try and get a chapter up before i leave, and write another while i'm gone.

Review please!

colonelZ


	8. Talking and Explosions

Wow...it's been forever since i updated. i officially have to right to complain when it comes to other's not updating their fics. sorry, i got lost on the road of life. no really, i had huge writer's block...and school became a very big pain, very fast. Anyway, life has decided to be nice recently and so i decided it was about time i got my lazy ass in gear and wrote a new chapter. So, in this chapter you'll get a better look at Lina's personality, and more info on the recent happenings of Konoha.

**Disclaimer: no, i don't own naruto, i'm much to lazy to write a new chapter every week.**

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Sakura had spent the past few hours of her day exploring her new surroundings with her former teammate. The snow was still falling gracefully, not at all hindering the every day occurrences of the street life. She smiled, a person could definitely get used to life in Fang.

Sakura and Naruto were currently walking down a secluded street near the edge of the city. The blonde had shown her nearly the entire village, talking about different shopkeepers, or their kids, as they went. The only thing he had left to show her was the park, the beginning of which was on their right. Sakura gazed wonderingly at the wall of trees as they walked past.

"So…"

She redirected her attention towards the blonde beside her, waiting expectantly.

"I've told you all about what I've been up too, but you've yet to tell me about your last three years." Naruto continued while looking off into space.

The kunoichi sighed, wondering how to begin. "Well…. Do you want the good side, or the bad side first?"

"Eh, give me the bad side first." The blonde replied, giving his full attention to the jounin at his side.

Sakura frowned with the memory of her past three years. "It's, complicated."

The genin laughed, "I'll try to keep up."

Sakura's lips twitched into a smile at his comment. "Ino was the one who told me about your 'betrayal'. The council spun it off like they had found you as you were leaving and had attempted to stop you when you attacked them. They wouldn't allow Tsunade-sama to send out a squad to look for you. They said it was too dangerous, and that we couldn't risk having a repeat of the Sasuke retrieval team. They used every loophole in the book to keep people from going after you.

"In a last ditch effort, Tsunade-sama informed Gaarra of the situation and he did manage to send out some search teams, although his council threw a fit as well. No one found anything. Jiraiya snuck out of the village to go look for you, but it was like you'd disappeared off the face of the earth.

"We kept arguing with the council for a long time, but they always managed to find ways to keep anyone from going on a mission that had anything to do with you. Eventually, we gave up trying to do things the legal way, and resorted to looking into everything we could while we were on normal missions.

"At first we had some trouble with Konohamaru and Hinata. They were really upset. It took Mogei and Udon two weeks to get Konohamaru to come out of his room, Hinata didn't stop crying for a month."

Naruto features twisted into a grimace as he was learned how his disappearance had affected his friends.

The kunoichi paused for a while, letting the blonde absorb the new information. Her thoughts continued in her head, retracing the memories she didn't plan to share. Most of which included how the notorious blonde's supposed defection had affected her own emotions and thoughts.

Sakura stopped as she realized the blonde had sat down on a snow-covered bench, apparently tired of walking for the moment. He leaned his head against the cold brick wall, closing his eyes. The kunoichi sat down silently beside him, enjoying his presence.

"What else?"

Her gazed wandered to the dense forest opposite the two as she continued. "The council is becoming a much more powerful force in Konoha."

Naruto opened his eyes, cocking an eyebrow in curiosity. "How so?"

"For the past three years, they've slowly been draining Tsunade-sama of her authority. She can't make a move anymore without running it by them first."

Naruto looked slightly alarmed. "How the hell did that happen?"

Sakura shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure. It started when Tsunade-sama was still on her excessive sake spree when you first went missing. They got her to agree to a few things, saying they were 'merely trying to lighten her work load in a time of personal distress'. By the time she came back to her senses, the council had already gotten to much power."

Naruto stared angrily off into the distance, ignoring the snowflakes that landed on his hair and clothes.

"We need you back Naruto. If it were to come out that the council made a backroom deal with Konoha's mortal enemies, we get everything back to normal. Besides, Konoha just isn't Konoha anymore. We miss you."

The genin sighed, shifting his gaze to the snow covered ground at his feet as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You know I can't go back Sakura."

The pink haired teen refused to accept it. "You have to, we need you!" She looked pleadingly at him, hoping to meet his gaze. "It's not just that the council is taking power from the Hokage, it's what they're doing with it. Things are getting bad Naruto, things need to change."

"I made a deal Sakura, I can't help you. You know that."

The kunoichi looked away angrily, tears forming in her sea green eyes. The blonde next to her heaved a sigh as the tears rolled down her cheeks. He stood up, turning to face her with a defeated look in his eyes. She looked up at him defiantly.

"Look, I'll _try_ and talk to Gyro. He'll probably kill me for even suggesting it, but I'll try.

Just, please stop crying, you know I hate that."

Her emerald eyes widened in surprise at the easy victory before she quickly jumped up and threw her arms around the stunned shinobi. He stiffened slightly out of surprise before he smirked and relaxed, happily returning the hug.

"I missed you." She said; her voice muffed slightly by his shoulder.

"I missed you too."

Sakura opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off the by the sound of an explosion coming from nearly two blocks away. The former teammates jumped apart, looking in the direction of the blast, watching wide-eyed as dust from the debris rose into the sky.

Lina's voice carried quickly through the frosty air, "That's it! Die you little fucker!!!"

Naruto's face lost its surprise. His body relaxed as he sighed, obviously irritated. "Great, what did Kai do now? And what the heck did she destroy this time?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow in alarm as she realized that it must be a frequent occurrence between the siblings. The two listened attentively to the sounds of various things being smashed, and/or blown up as Lina chased Kai around the town, heading in their direction.

Both shinobi took a few steps back as a boy with choppy brown hair that stuck up at odd angles flew over the wall, quickly followed by the familiar white locks of Lina. She managed to grab hold of his ankle, dragging the poor boy to the ground as she muttered incoherent streams of profanities. The siblings wrestled furiously on the ground, Kai begging for mercy while Lina continued her foul-mouthed sentences of fury.

After a minute or so of letting them pound on each other, Naruto sauntered over towards the two, hauling Lina off of her brother, ignoring her squirming protests. Kai lay back on his elbows panting as Naruto attempted to quite a ragging kunoichi.

Sakura looked on stunned. It amazed her that Naruto was actually having to play referee.

Meanwhile, Naruto had both his arms wrapped tightly around the flaming kunoichi's waist, struggling to keep her from killing her terrified brother.

"Will you just calm down and tell me what happened?!" The blonde yelled at her over her curse filled gibberish.

"He dumped a freaking bucket of ice water on me!"

Naruto scowled in annoyance, sick of the juvenile pranks that no self-respecting eighteen year old should commit. _"Honestly, if he's going to pull pranks he should at least come up with more inventive ones."_ He thought darkly as he "accidentally" loosened his grip on the not-so-calm female. Lina easily squirmed out of his arms and raced towards her brother once again, determined to pound the prank-pulling phase out of him forcefully.

The eagle boy screamed in terror and raced off, running for his life from his own sister. _"Okay, maybe dumping ice water on her in the middle of winter wasn't such a bright idea."_ He thought as he fearfully looked behind him to see his fuming sister close behind. He whimpered in fear as he sped up, _"Damn it! I'm to young to die!"_

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Okay, so we have the introduction of kai, who won't really play that big of a role...but anyway, yes, Lina has a few anger managment problems, and knows far to many curse words for her own good.

I'll try to update soon, though soon for me ould me in a month. hopefull it'll be more like a few days or a week.

review or not, i truly don't give a damn. (wow, how long has it been since an author has had that view point huh?)


	9. More Talk of Home

AN: Hola! wow, this is an early update (for me anyway). This isn't a very plot advancing chapter, it mainly just finishes filling you in on all you need to know about life in Konoha without Naruto. I didn't really know how to end it so i hope i did an all right job. anyway; read away if you wish.

**Disclaimer: Good Lord for the last time, i do not own Naruto (do we really have to put these things on every chapter or is it just at some point durring the story?)**

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Sakura stared after the retreating shinobi. She couldn't decided which was more frightening, what she had just seen, or her sensei's reaction to catching her former teammate in the middle of his "research". It was a close call.

Naruto sighed as he felt the chakra signatures of his partner and her brother race farther away. Their continual brawls reminded of the reason he'd quit pulling pranks himself: too many broken bones.

He sighed as he looked around for the gargantuan fox that had decided to head off for a nap two hours before. Realizing the gray-eyed beast was probably still asleep he returned his attention to the still stunned pink haired kunoichi beside him.

"Do they do that all the time?"

"What, attempt to kill each other? Yeah, you get used to it."

"Wow, you two must make quite a pair."

The blonde glared playfully in mock resentment. "Hey, I'm the mature one on our team."

Sakura laughed at the jinchuuriki's statement. He was probably telling the truth from what she'd seen, and heard.

Naruto lead her into the park, choosing a different direction than the one the siblings had moments before. They walked silently through a thick patch of trees before it thinned to reveal the edge of a path. They stepped out onto the trail, opting for the pre-made guidelines instead of making new ones through the untamed parts of the woods.

"So what's the good side?" The blonde asked suddenly, breaking the peaceful silence between them.

The kunoichi thought for a few seconds. "Well, there isn't much of one."

"Neji, Hinata (amazingly), and Shino have all made it into the ANBU. Hinata surprised us all, we didn't even know she was going for it. Shikamaru refuses to become an ANBU, despite Tsunade-sama's constant pleading. He's the main strategist for all Konoha now.

Lee, Chouji, TenTen, Ino, Kiba and I are all jounin. Hinata's little sister, Hinabi, and Konohamaru are also jounin. Konohamaru's teammates Moegi and Udon are both still chunin. Everyone's begun to pair up and start going out too."

"Really?" The genin was now _very_ interested, not that he hadn't been before of course. "Who's with who?"

Sakura inwardly laughed at the blonde's eagerness. "Well, Hinata finally ended up with Kiba."

"It's about time, I was hoping she would get over me sooner or later."

"Wait," the kunoichi paused. "You knew she had a crush on you?"

"Yeah, it was kind of obvious."

"Baka! We thought you were too dense to notice and you knew the whole time?" She exclaimed, stunned.

"It was easier to avoid the situation." He replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Sakura shook her surprise out of her head. _"Geeze, what else did he know that we didn't think he did?" _

"So who else has paired up?"

The medic nin came out of her thoughts and happily resumed her conversation with her former teammate.

"Well, Shikamaru and Temari finally hooked up."

"How?"

"Tsunade-sama and Gaara played matchmaker. I think they needed some form of entertainment."

Naruto laughed.

"And then Ino's with Chouji, which no one saw coming. They're good for each other though. Ten Ten finally broke through Neji's 'high and mighty' exterior and they're engaged. Konohamaru is dating Hinabi, much to Hiashi-sama's distress.

"Gaara is dating some girl in his village, I haven't met her myself but Tsunade-sama laughed for days when she came back from a diplomatic meeting in Suna. She says they're complete opposites.

"Kankurou is also dating a girl from Suna, I haven't met her either. Lee is actually dating a girl in the class below ours. She's been working non-stop for the past year to get him to change his wardrobe. She hasn't had much success.

"And then there's Shino."

Naruto stifled his laughter, which had been sparked by the jounin's description of his friends' social lives, waiting for her to continue. "What about Shino?"

"No one really knows." She told him with a frustrated look on her face.

"What do you mean know one knows?"

"He's really secretive. We've been able to figure out that he's dating someone, we just can't figure out who it is. It's driving Kiba crazy. We have a bet on who we think it is. I say it's this girl in the class above ours that he spends a lot of time with. Kiba says he's gay."

Naruto roared with laughter at his friends' antics. Sakura chuckled, enjoying the genin's infectious laughter.

"What the heck is so annoyingly funny?"

Sakura's head shot up as a black fox stepped out onto the trail in front of them. _"That sounded like Taka, but this fox is so small. What the heck?"_

"Oi, Sakura was telling me about my old friends back in Konoha. Looks like you finally woke up you lazy fox." Naruto replied jokingly as he threw a handful of snow at the summon.

The fox shook it off absently, vowing to get revenge on the blonde shinobi later.

"Wait, why are you so small now?" The medic nin asked, visibly confused.

"I can alter my size at will. It comes in handy, not at all annoying." Taka replied, trotting along beside the two as they continued down the path.

"Oh." The kunoichi was trying to wrap her head around the new physics lesson as they walked. "So how big are you naturally?" She asked curiously.

"Ever seen Gamabunta? He's around my size."

"Ahh." Sakura stared off in amazement, trying to imagine the fox in his full size. All she could come up with was a twisted version of the Kyuubi.

Naruto had finally gotten his laughter under control again and walked silently beside his former teammate as she continued questioning the fox. He looked up at the sky, watching the snow fall from the overcast clouds above them. He noted dully that the snow was beginning to fall much faster. The temperature had dropped by a few degrees as well.

The whiskered teen had lived in Fang long enough to know an upcoming blizzard when he saw one. It was probably a smart idea to head back to the main part of the city before the weather got any worse, but then again, it wouldn't be bad for another few hours. He wasn't one to go with smart ideas that often anyway.

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An: Hope you guys (and girls) enjoyed the chapter, like i said i wasn't really sure how to end it. I have no idea when i'll be able to write again, spring break is over and school is returning with a vengance. hopefully i'll be able to post in a week or less.

Review, or not, i truly don't care...this stories not going anywhere (even if someone tells me it's a descrace to writting i'd keep it jus

t to spite them)

ColonelZ


	10. Senseis and Kai

A/N: Hola! a new chapter, kudos for me. Thank you for everyone who decided to review on the last chapter, I'm not obsessed with getting reviews, but it's nice to know people like my work.

Here's the new chapter, I hope you enjoy it!

And for the record, foxes are, for a fact, canines. don't ask me why, but they are.

**Disclaimer: If i could think of an inventive way to say i don't own Naruto, then I would but i'm afraid biology and algebra 2 have fried my brain.**

And yes. i know Asuma is supposed to be dead but whatever...I like Asuma so Asuma will be alive for the remainder of the story, deal with it.

* * *

Sakura was still laughing as the pair of shinobi walked back to the heart of the city.

Naruto was still wet and sulking.

Taka was still hiding in an unknown location, probably still laughing.

The fox's revenge on the blonde genin had been very successful. Naruto, who wasn't paying attention at the time, had walked under a particularly snow filled tree.

Taka, who had vowed to get revenge for the many snowballs that had showered his black fur, took the open opportunity. With a powerful shove to the trunk of the tree, the branches dumped their suspended snow onto an unsuspecting jinchuuriki.

Quite a bit of cursing, laughing, running and chasing ensued.

Naruto had then decided it was best to head into town, away from trees. After Sakura stopped laughing hysterically and had picked herself up off the ground, of course.

After a minute or so of listening to half stifled laughs coming from the pink haired medic at his side, Naruto remembered that Sakura had yet to finish telling him about their friends back home. "What happened to all of our senseis?"

Sakura swallowed her laughter with difficulty, "Who do I start with?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know, how about Kakashi?"

The jounin grinned. "Oh, he's still as perverted as ever. He still wears that mask of his and goes on all kinds of crazy missions. Tsunade-sama keeps trying to get him to take on another genin team, but he always finds a way out of it."

Naruto smiled to himself, remembering his former sensei with a fresh wave of nostalgia.

"Oh, and he's engaged to Anko." The cherry blossom added nonchalantly.

Naruto started at her. "Anko? As in freakily-morbid-second-examiner-of-the-chuunin-exams Anko?"

Sakura nodded.

Naruto made a face as he tried to envision the couple. He couldn't. "That must be interesting."

She laughed, "You have no idea. They argue all the time; it's hilarious. They love each other a lot though, that much is obvious."

"Good for them then. What about Iruka?" He braced himself for any abnormal news the teen might have for him; so far the things he'd heard were rather odd.

"Oh, he's the same as always. He misses you like crazy, but he still teaches at the ninja academy. He and Konohamaru hang out a lot. He claimsto be bachelor." She added, rolling her eyes slightly.

"And what do you think?" The blonde probed, seeing, hearing and feeling the waves of skepticism rolling off of her.

"_I_ think he's secretly dating Ayame from the ramen shop." She said confidently.

He arched an eyebrow at her, "And what proof do you have?"

Sakura glared at him for doubting her. "I saw them both coming out from behind the shop one time. Iruka had this really silly grin on his face, like he'd just had the greatest time of his life and Ayame was trying to button the top of her shirt."

Naruto felt his eyes widen in astonishment. "No way."

Sakura grinned, proud of herself for keeping up with the happenings of Konoha. "It's true, I swear."

Naruto chuckled as he looked away, he couldn't believe what he'd missed.

Sakura continued with her account of the lives of their senseis. "Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya spend a lot of time together now. Neither of them have been the same since you went missing. I don't know much about what Gai's been up to. To be honest I'm afraid to ask."

Naruto smirked. "I can understand why."

"Kurenai and Asuma are married now." She added, her mind jumping tracks quickly.

"I was wondering how long it would take them."

"Yeah, they're expecting a kid too, though not for a while. Kurenai's on her third month. It's just now starting to show, and it's driving her crazy." Sakura smiled as she remembered how the jounin had gripped about have to buy bigger clothes.

Naruto chuckled sadly, missing his home more than ever. There was one more person he'd yet to ask about, but he wasn't going to be the one to bring up the subject. He also doubted there was anything his former teammate could tell him that he didn't already know.

Naruto lead Sakura around a corner and onto a busy street. Despite the upcoming storm, people were still out and about, determined to get in a few more hours of useful time before all of the sane members of the population shut themselves up in their homes for the night.

Naruto stopped and turned around as he heard someone shouting his name. Sakura quickly followed suit.

Lina and Kai walked up to greet them. They had apparently reconciled their differences.

Lina cocked an eyebrow, seeing Naruto's still damp state. "What happened to you? You're all wet. You've got to be freezing; you should go inside and change."

"I'm fine, don't worry." He shrugged, rubbing off his teammate's concern. He instead turned to Kai. "Glad to see you're still alive, and hopefully re-thinking the water dumping hobby."

Kai grinned, a natural good humor surrounding him. "Don't worry, my self-preservation instincts are too strong for me to do that again."

Naruto couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Maybe the siblings could make it a few days without killing each other after all. He suddenly remembered Sakura at his side. "Oh yeah, you two haven't met yet. Sakura this is Kai, Kai this is Sakura."

It was the first time she'd gotten a good look at him. His semi-short hair stuck up and out at odd angles, expressing his many sided personality. It was a deep chocolate brown, the same color as his eyes. His features were sharp and angular, and his body was long and lanky. Sakura wondered briefly how he could stand being in the snow in a black T-shirt and black denim jeans like he was. Sakura smiled politely from beside Naruto as she shook Kai's out-stretched hand.

Kai grinned at her. "Nice to meet you Sakura."

Lina cleared her throat. "So, how was your afternoon? Where the clothes warm enough?"

"It was great, and yes I was warm enough. Thanks again for letting me borrow the clothes." Sakura replied, grinning in thanks.

Lina smiled eagerly, "No problem. Feel free to borrow as many as you like, although you might be more comfortable in something of your own. Oh! I have an idea!" She turned to the blonde, who had begun to stare out into space, his thoughts elsewhere. "Naruto-kun, can I take Sakura shopping?"

Naruto looked at Sakura, silently asking if she wanted to go or not. She nodded, wanting to get to know the girl who had been spending so much time with her former teammate.

The blonde shrugged at Lina. "I don't care, as long as Sakura wants to go. I'm not going though; I need to change clothes. I guess I'll talk to Gyro after that." He grimaced in anticipation of the unavoidable conversation.

Sakura frowned at the thought of separating from her newly found teammate.

Lina scowled slightly and turned to Kai, who immediately adopted a fearful expression. "Ummm, I'm going with him." He stuttered quickly, pointing nervously at Naruto.

Lina scowled deeper. They would have to carry their own bags.

* * *

A/N: Okay, i know, lots of dialogue, little plot progression. Just let me get all the conversation out of my system and then the plot will move **very** quickly, i promiss. Narusaku action is in the future as well...though you might want to notice that this story is not in the romance section (simply because i've never written romance before and am utterly terrified of trying to write it and am procrastinating as long as possible)

no garuantees on when the next up date will be, hopefully soon. If you feel so lead, then review, however if you don't, or are just to lazy, then I truely don't care. Flames are excepted, as long as the flamers except colorful replies.

colonelZ


	11. Crack Mission?

AN: Whoot!! new chapter...i feel proud of myself. Okay, for those of you who have been sugesting that i speed up the plot development, you'll be happy to know that the plot makes a little (and I mean A LITTLE) progress in this chapter. You will also be happy to know that I had originally planned on writing out Sakura and Lina's shopping trip (which would have been funny but completely pointless) but ditched that idea in favor of getting to a point where the plot could move quicklly sooner. From the next chapter on, the plot should (and don't quote me on this i might through in another character development chapter just for the heck of it) pick up the pace again.

Also...there is a little (and by little i mean about a sentance, but hey a little is better that none right?) bit of hinting at the narusaku attraction in this chapter. Like i said, i've never written any form of romance before so if it seems out of place then just ignore it. Anyway, enough of my rambling.

Thank you to those who have decided to review, and to Swehaan who was kind enough to take the time to deal with my horrible spelling and give my story a beta read.

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto...I don't know what i'd change because it's perfect as it is...but i'm sure something in the series would be different...**

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Sakura collapsed onto her bed. The five hours of shopping and three hours of sitting at a kitchen table talking with the chatterbox slash shopaholic left her exhausted. 

The wolf heiress had taken her to nearly every store in the city, keeping the conversation up constantly as they shopped.

The result was Sakura's new wardrobe and two teens that now knew nearly everything about each other.

Most of the conversation was question and answer; they'd covered everything from favorites to trading stories of things Naruto had done. Sakura was please to find out that the blonde knucklehead hadn't really changed much in the past three years.

By the time the stores had closed and the weather had become unbearable, the two had retired to Lina's fourth story apartment to eat dinner. In the end they'd talked until one in the morning.

Sakura closed her eyes as she listened to the wind howl outside. It was the fierce storm was still raging outside and despite Lina's assurance that it would be over by dawn, the medic nin couldn't help but doubt the guarantee.

She sighed, snuggling into her pillows. She was staying at Lina's house, having declared herself fit to be discharged from the hospital. She tried to sleep as her thoughts wandered back to a certain blonde genin.

She hadn't seen Naruto at all after she'd gone off to shop with Lina, and the kunoichi was more than bitter about being separated from him so soon. She had had fun with Lina, but she still longed for the company of a certain jinchuuriki.

Had he really talked to Gyro? Would he be able to go back to Konoha? What if Gyro had said no? She opened her weary eyes and stared at the ceiling. A determined look came over her features as she thought, _"It took me three years to find him. Gyro be damned, I refuse to leave here without him."_

All conscious thinking ceased for Sakura as she drifted off into a much-needed slumber.

"SAKURA!!!"

Sakura yelped as she bolted up right in surprise, covers flying off her body. Her hair was a mess and she was breathing heavily as she stared at the teen in her doorway. It took her a few seconds to remember all that had happened on the previous day.

"What the hell, Lina?!"

Lina looked as if she was trying her hardest not to laugh at her fellow medic's reaction. "It's almost noon. If you don't get out of bed soon, we won't be able to meet Naruto for lunch. So I decided to wake you up instead of waiting for you to get up on your own."

Sakura glared sleepily after her companion as she disappeared from the doorway. The cherry blossom yawned loudly as she climbed out of bed and stumbled down the hall to the bathroom.

The kunoichi was considerably more alert after a cold shower. She dressed quickly, pulling on a cream colored sweatshirt over a brown tank. She slipped into a pair of full-length denim pants before putting on her new closed toed shoes. She pulled her pink hair back with her Konoha headband as she walked into the kitchen where Lina was waiting.

Sakura followed Lina through a maze of streets. The explosive teen been right about the weather, the blizzard had snowed itself out during the night and the citizens of Fang once again rushed through the snow-layered streets.

Sakura could see her own breath as they walked silently through the city. She was still amazed that the clothes she was wearing were enough to keep her warm in the frozen outdoors. She watched the people as they walked past her, each one of them dressed in a style similar to her own, some even had on t-shirts. It seemed that the longer you stayed in Fang, the more immune you grew to the weather.

The cherry blossom was snapped out of her thoughts as Lina made a sharp turn into a small alleyway. They walked in between the buildings for a few yards before exiting onto the broad main road of Fang. Lina walked diagonally across the street, heading straight for a classic looking restaurant that stood between what looked to be a two-story bookstore and one of the shops she and Lina had been in the night before.

A bell chimed as they entered the warm building and Lina headed straight for a pair of male shinobi. Sakura couldn't help but smile as Naruto and Kai came into view. She skipped up to the table happily with Lina and sat down next to her former teammate.

Naruto laughed as she reached greedily for one of the rolls in the center of the table.

"I see your shopping trip was fruitful."

Sakura grunted as she bit into the sweet roll, her metabolism was reawakening, and reminding herself that she hadn't eaten in nearly fourteen hours.

Lina piped up, her usual talkativeness returning. "Of course. You really should have come along, you know."

"And carry your bags all over town for you? Thanks, but I'd choose crack missions over that any day." Kai answered groggily. He looked as though he hadn't slept for days.

Sakura glanced at Naruto again, seeing that the blonde looked weary as well. The observations didn't escape Lina either.

"Where were you two last night? Did you talk to Dad?" She asked a little concerned.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I asked him if I could go back to Konoha. He originally said no flat out, but I managed to get him to consider it. He said he'd think about it and then sent me on a crack mission."

"And of course I had to go along; guilty by association." Kai muttered sleepily.

"What's a crack mission?" Sakura asked, a little lost.

"It's what we call a mission that no one will take on either because it's too impossible or too easy, or it's something Gyro makes up off the top of his head just to give you something pointless and exhausting to do." The blonde explained, yawning. Even with his amazing stamina, the genin was feeling the effects of fatigue.

Lina paled. "He sent you on a crack mission in the middle of a blizzard? What did you have to do?" Sakura looked equally disturbed.

The waitress walked up before they could answer. "What would you guys like to drink?" She asked, obviously familiar with at least three of the ninjas seated at the table.

Kai laughed. "Bring the most caffeine filled drink you have."

The girl nodded understandingly and turned toward Naruto. "The same for you?"

Naruto nodded.

The waitress turned to the two medic nins. "And you two?"

Lina grinned. "Coffee."

Sakura smiled politely. "Same, please."

The girl nodded and rushed off to get the drinks.

Lina rounded on the boys again as Kai laid his head down on the table. "So…what exactly did you have to do?"

"He sent us out to Carneithia to deliver a scroll and told us to be back by dawn." Naruto explained.

Lina grimaced. "Ouch. You think that's better than shopping with me?"

Naruto laughed. "If you were a guy, you would too."

Lina rolled her eyes as the waitress came back with their drinks. They ordered their food, Sakura picking something randomly off the menu.

The rest of the lunch passed comfortably; Kai praising the fact that the restaurant served cappuccinos with six extra shots of espresso, Lina and Sakura giving a step-by-step report of their shopping trip, and Naruto laughing along.

The cherry blossom followed her former teammate down the street after they parted with the siblings, who had once again begun to argue.

They walked in silence. Naruto headed in a random direction, deciding to just start walking and see where they ended up. He mentally tried to shake the sleep from his thoughts as he attempted to regain some small spark of energy.

Sakura looked up at the blonde beside her. She still couldn't get used to some the changes in his physical appearance. The fact that she now had to look up to see his face still seemed odd.

As they strolled through the town, Sakura couldn't help but feel hyperaware of the man beside her. It was as if there was an electric current running between the two shinobi. Sakura fought against the instinctive urge to reach out and intertwine her fingers with the genin's.

Eventually they ended up stretched out on a hill in the snow. Naruto sighed in contentment. _"Stupid Kyuubi,"_ he thought as he fought against the exhaustion, _"I wish caffeine had a bigger effect on me."_

Sakura sat down next to the blonde. She looked over at the jinchuuriki as he sighed. "Naruto," she began, unsure if it was the right time to ask, "You talked to Gyro again this morning didn't you? What did he say? About going back to Konoha, I mean."

Naruto chuckled humorlessly. "He says he wants to meet you first."

Sakura blanched.

The two lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. Naruto strayed in and out of the realm of the conscious as they lay there. After a while, he decided it was time to do something entertaining.

Sakura sat quietly as she stared off into the distance. Her thoughts were everywhere as she waited for Naruto to regain some of his childhood liveliness. She was focusing on what people back in Konoha would think of her disappearance as a glob of cold slush collided with the side of her head. She yelped.

Naruto laughed, his hands returning to their places behind his head.

Smirking, she began building a snowball of her own and hurled it at the genin.

The frozen rain collided with his ear, the cold doing an excellent job of waking him up completely.

They began to hurl balls of snow at each other as they circled each other on the hill, each one trying to get the advantage over the other.

The fight ended when Naruto was tackled by a blur of black fur as he was dumping a hand full of snow down the back of Sakura's sweatshirt.

Sakura shrieked and shook out her clothes frantically as the cold solid came in contact with her warm skin.

Naruto sat up bewildered rubbing the spot on his chest where the fox had collided with him.

Taka paced in frantic circles around the blonde, looking warily in every direction.

* * *

AN: Okay, I wasn't sure where to end this chapter so i decided on there...though it probably wasnt' a good idea. Anyway, the next chapter should be up soon (and you should know by now the word 'soon' has a very loose meaning for me). 

Review if you wish, it's nice to know someone's reading my story, but if you don't want to fine by me, i don't truly care. Flames are excetped as long as flamers except colorful replies.

Colonel Z


	12. One unexpected problem

**Disclaimer: If i owned Naruto, there is no way in hell there would be a new chapter out every week in japan.**

Wow...been a while, hasn't it? Sorry, I know, I know...i take too long to update. I just can't write sometimes, you know?

This chapter is a lot more dialogue oriented than i usually write, so i appreaciate it if you could tell me how i did. ( this chapter is un-betaed is that the word? so there are probably some errors.)

Also, inner sakura makes an apperance.

_sakura's thoughts_

**inner sakura.**

Regular dialogue/writting. I think you get it.

sigh anyway, let's recap shall we?

* * *

_They began to hurl balls of snow at each other as they circled each other on the hill, each one trying to get the advantage over the other. _

_The fight ended when Naruto was tackled by a blur of black fur as he was dumping a hand full of snow down the back of Sakura's sweatshirt. _

_Sakura shrieked and shook out her clothes frantically as the cold solid came in contact with her warm skin. _

_Naruto sat up bewildered rubbing the spot on his chest where the fox had collided with him. _

_Taka paced in frantic circles around the blonde, looking warily in every direction._

* * *

"Taka, what the heck is wrong with you?"

"We're all screwed, that's what's wrong with me."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto glared at the fox as he paced.

Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, what's going on?"

Taka stopped, turning to face Naruto, "You know how our defense system is unbeatable?"

Naruto frowned, "Yeah, what's that got to do with anything?"

"It has a hole."

Naruto stiffened, quickly becoming deathly serious. "What do you mean it as a hole? Get to the point Taka."

"Satarima is marching on us, with an army of 5,000 and we missed it. They're half a day away."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Satarima? That guy who attacked me, Aoushi, he mentioned something about smuggling things into there. What is it, another city?"

Naruto nodded. "It's the second strongest village in the North."

"Who's the strongest?"

Naruto smirked. "We are."

Taka snorted, "We might not be after this, I don't know if we can get ready in half a day, they'll be attacking by nightfall."

Sakura looked nervously at Naruto whose smirk was now a full-blown grin.

"Well then I guess it's a good thing we can see in the dark." The blonde jumped up, every sign of fatigue fading from his face. "Sakura, we need to get back to the city. Taka, find Lina and Kai. Tell them to meet me in Gyro's office."

The fox nodded silently, and disappeared in a ball of black fire.

Sakura glanced at Naruto. He was standing stock still, barely breathing. "…Naruto?"

He closed his eyes and walked over, he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the edge of the forest.

Sakura scowled, "I can walk for myself you know."

"'Take to long."

Sakura didn't have time to give an angry retort. The next moment all she could see was a bright yellow light; the ground faded from beneath her feet and the wind rushed past her body at an unbelievable speed.

A second later it was all over. Her knees buckled and she fell towards the ground. _"What the hell was that?"_

Naruto caught her, pulling her upright again. Sakura clutched his arm as she regained her balance.

He couldn't help it, he laughed. Her hair was completely messed up, blown in a thousand directions by the wind. Her face was paler than normal, her green eyes wide with surprise and her entire body was stiff. She looked like a cat that had just been rudely awakened from a nap by a rather loud noise.

After several deep breaths her thoughts seemed to catch up with her body. She also noticed her surroundings. They were standing on a circular platform Naruto had shown her the day before.

It over looked the entire city, and led up to the giant mahogany doors that opened into the hallways and rooms that the builders of Fang had carved into the mountain itself.

They were at least three miles away from the clearing where she'd just been having a snowball fight.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Think 'Yellow Flash'."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "As in the Yondaime's…how the heck did you learn how to do that?!"

Naruto grinned at her. "That is for me to know and you to find out later. Right now, we have to get to Gyro's office."

Sakura scowled, angry at the lack of information, but allowed herself to be pulled through the doors and into the mountain itself.

Inside was a rather elaborate lobby. _"If I didn't know any better I'd say we're just in any other building, not inside a freaking mountain, how'd they do all this? Just how long did it take to build this city?"_

Sakura shook her head, pushing her questions aside. She would be sure to give Naruto a throughout interrogation later.

He'd dropped her hand, and she inwardly frowned at the loss of warmth. Naruto was standing next to her, waiting semi-patiently for her to focus her thoughts.

She nodded at him and he smiled at her quickly before leading the way through a door to their right.

The kunoichi couldn't help but let her thoughts wander as she followed Naruto through the maze of hallways. _"How he remembers his way through all of these I'll never know."_

She absent-mindedly observed her surroundings. The hallways were well lit, the floor was covered in soft carpet, and various decorations adorned the walls. Which, for the most part, had been left as just the mountains natural rock, polished smooth as glass.

They walked up a flight of stairs that led to another set of mahogany doors.

A purple haired receptionist looked up nervously as they walked in. She raised a curious eyebrow at Sakura before smiling warmly at Naruto.

**"A little too warmly."**

"_Oh no, not you again. Didn't you say you weren't coming back until I learned to appreciate all the' wonderful advice' you gave me?"_

**"Yes, but there are exceptions to every rule."**

"_Like?"_

**"Like someone has to make sure you don't screw up you chance to be with Naruto."**

"_What are you talking about? I'm already with Naruto, he's standing right next to me."_

**"That's not what I mean."**

"_Then connect the dot's for me."_

"**Somebody has to make sure you don't screw up your chance to be with him **_**romantically.**_

Sakura inwardly sighed. _"Not this again. Didn't you give up on the whole 'I like Naruto' thing?"_

Inner Sakura scowled. **"He was gone, there wasn't much you or I could do at the time. But now…anyway, I know you like him."**

"_Okay, okay, maybe I do. But he's been gone for so long, how do I know if he's still the same person? He might even have a girlfriend now. I've only been here a couple days. For all I know he and Lina could be more than friends."_

Inner Sakura's jaw hit the floor. **"What's this? Sakura admits she likes the knucklehead of the Rookie Nine as more than a friend? The world must be ending."**

"_Hey! I'm not that hard headed. But I figured it out after you'd left. I couldn't get him off my mind, it was worse than when Sasuke left. Still, it doesn't do me any good right now. There's a freaking army marching on the city, the last thing I should be thinking about is whether or not he still cares for me the way he did."_

Inner Sakura groaned. **"Again with the hesitation. Right now is the perfect time to tell him how you feel, he, and probably us too, is about to be in battle! What if something happens to him? Do you want to live the rest of you life wondering?"**

"_Nothing's going to happen to him!"_

"Umm, Sakura? You still with me here?"

Sakura blinked, and stared back at the blonde who was looking at her with concern etched on his face.

The receptionist was staring at her strangely.

"_Crud, how long did I space out for?"_

She laughed nervously. "Heh, sorry, just spaced out for a second. Sorry."

"**We'll finish this later."** Inner Sakura grumbled as she disappeared.

"_Phew, she's gone. Peace and quiet at last."_

"**I heard that!"**

Sakura shook her inner-self out of her head and turned her attention back to Naruto.

"So what's going on?"

Naruto sighed. "I have to go in and talk to Gyro for a while. You can wait out here if you like, or Taka can take you where ever you like when he shows up again, okay?"

Sakura nodded. "Okay, but I'll probably just wait out here."

He shrugged. "Do what you like, but it'll be a while, just to warn you." He smiled reassuringly at her before heading out the room.

Sakura sighed. _"Yay, more waiting."_

She looked over at the purple haired receptionist, who was now reading what looked like a romance novel, and sat down in a seat next to the window to wait.

* * *

AN: Yay! new chapter! 

Anyway, I hope you liked it, for the record this whole Satarima marching on Fang thing wasn't part of my original plot, which is why i'm having a little trouble writing it.

Originally, Taka was supposed to be freaked out by one of Lina's summons, (who you'll meet later) but i ended the last chapter in a cliffy and i decided that it would be really mean to have nothing very serious happen this chapter, especially with the lack of plot movement lately.

Anyway, the next chapter is written, but i doubt i'll post it for a week or so to let people figure out that i'm updating again.

Later,

colonelZ


	13. What to do, What to do

Hi! See, i told you i would update in a week!

**colonelZ**: how many of you acctually thought I would?

(no one raises their hand)

**colonel Z**: sweatdrops yeah, i didn't think i would either.

(everyone sweatdrops)

Anyway! I'm back, although i was a little disapointed with the number of reviewd on the last chapter, normally i get more than that. But anyway, thanks to everybody who did review, it was nice to see that people were still interested.

Here's the new chapter, it's very wordy, but you get a good description of Fang in this chapter. No fight scenes yet, but i promise i'll have them soon.

Enjoy!! PS: this story had been around for over a year...how many of you are sick of me? (everyone raises their hand) Hey! i averaged one update a month! (everyone sweatdrops)

yes i'm dorky. i know that. just start reading the new chapter already. **Dis: me no own**

* * *

Sakura sat nervously in the small waiting room. She unconsciously fiddled with the fabric at the bottom of her new shirt as she tried to make out the words being shouted by muffled voices behind a pair of enormous mahogany doors.

Even the laid back Taka was sitting upright and alert in the corner, ears up and eyes sharp.

The purple haired receptionist was still completely engrossed in her novel, totally oblivious to her surroundings.

Naruto was one of the people arguing behind the massive doors. He and the village leader, Gyro, were currently engaged in a heated yelling match about just how this whole mess had happened, and what was the best battle plan to deal with it.

Sakura glanced out the window.

From the window, you had a perfect aerial view of the hidden village.

But the aerial view wasn't nearly as impressive as looking at the city head on.

The entire city had literally been built into a mountain, a pyramid shaped wedge cut out of the rock. The stone city had a triangular floor plan that could easily fit the entire village of Konoha inside, and still have room to spare.

The two cliffs that formed the town's natural walls came together at a central waterfall that cascaded down thirty-four stories, crashing into the river that flowed through the city's center. The water exited the city through a constantly monitored arch in the village's third wall (the one that separated them from the immaculate forest below) and continued down the mountain.

Every building in the city had been made from the stone of the mountain. The original architects had even gone so far as to build rooms in the cliffs themselves. Sakura was looking out of one of those rooms now, inset into the vertical mountainside, looking on as shinobi said goodbye to family and friends before rushing them into the safe-heaven of the mountain's giant caverns.

The inches of fresh snow that layered the ground were no longer a hindrance to civilians going about their daily errands. It was a home advantage, Fang shinobi were used to fighting in the snow.

Satarima shinobi were not.

It was as if the weather was trying to even the odds. Satarima had the advantage of surprise; Fang had experience fighting in the middle of a snowstorm.

Sakura watched as the wind blew the white flakes wildly across the sky. The weather had taken another turn for the worst while Naruto, Lina and Kai argued with Gyro about a battle strategy.

An inescapable tension had settled in the city, Sakura could feel it from where she sat.

Taka had given her more details on the situation while they waited on Naruto.

For the first time in centuries, and army had gotten past Fang's unbeatable defense system. Satarima, the city hidden in the rocky coastline to the northwest, had managed to get an army five thousand men strong, one thousand and six hundred feet up a mountain, without being spotted.

An invading force would be at the city's front door by nightfall.

Sakura sighed as she went back to attempting to listen in on the mysterious conversation behind the closed mahogany doors. As near as she could tell, inside were about seven people. She knew for a fact that Naruto, Lina, Kai, and Gyro were all inside, but since then three other distinct voices had been added to the verbal fray.

Taka growled under his breath. "Typical. Our enemy's at our doorstep and all those three wrinkled old farts care about is pinning the blame. Annoying, I hate village elders."

"You know, you should really talk to Shikamaru sometime. I think you two would have an interesting conversation about which word is more accurate, troublesome or annoying."

Sakura looked up to find the doors open. Naruto was leaning against their frame, no hints of amusement on his face. He sighed and stretched, walking over to join Sakura at the window. He sat down in the seat next to hers and closed his eyes as he leaned his head back against the wall.

Lina and Kai stalked out of the room. Kai wore a scowl on his face that rivaled that of his sister's, who looked as if she were seconds away from lighting an entire shopping mall on fire, merchandise and all.

Three elders followed the siblings out and they quickly retreated down the hall and through another set of mahogany doors.

"Idiots. I have a city to protect, I'll figure out whose fault this mess is in the morning. Stupid fools."

Sakura looked up to see a very pissed looking older man standing in the doorway of his office. He wore blue and white kage robes, minus the hat. He had graying brown hair that was cut short but showed no signs of balding. His face was aged, but had the look of strength and experience. His brown eyes were glaring after the long gone elders as if they were still in the room.

Sakura's eyes widened. Lina and Kai snorted in agreement before looking back at the man.

He exhaled sharply. "Enough of that. Kai, your focus should be getting the civilians into the cliffs. I want every non-shinobi in the Caves by nightfall. Lina, gather the shinobi and start organizing them, Naruto will join you shortly."

The siblings nodded and walked out quickly.

The man turned towards Sakura, observing her casually. "So this is the Sakura I've heard so much about."

Naruto yawned and sat up straighter. "Yeah. Sakura, this is Gyro."

The cherry blossom stood and bowed politely. "Nice to meet you, sir."

Gyro smiled at her as she straightened. "Hello, I've heard a lot about you."

The smile faded. "But social formalities will have to wait. Now we come to the situation of how to accommodate you during this fight."

Sakura nodded, she'd been wondering what would happen to her.

"You have two options. Neither of which involve fighting, though Naruto tells me you could do more than hold you own in a fight. But, if I am going to allow you to return to your home, I don't want you to have an intricate knowledge of our strategies. No offense meant of course, it just we can't be too careful. Satarima is proof enough of this."

Naruto rolled his eyes.

Gyro scowled at him. "I would be happy to let you stay in the Caves with the villagers, and that, I think, would be the safest option for you." He glanced at Naruto who looked casually away and out the window. "But I have heard from both my daughter and Naruto that you are a medic ninja, is this correct?"

Sakura nodded.

"Well, then it would be a great help if you could assist us with our injured as the battle goes on. I would not at all expect you to agree to help us, and your decision is entirely up to you, but it would be a great help." He looked at her hopefully.

Sakura glanced at Naruto, who looked back at her, silently telling her to do as she wished, before turning back to the window.

Sakura grinned. "I would be happy to help in anyway I can, just tell me where to go."

Gyro grinned. "Thank you, your help is truly appreciated. Naruto will show you where to go."

He nodded at her one last time before disappearing back into his office.

* * *

AN: Well, that's it for chapter 13 (the unlucky chapter, ooo, in october too, scary) 

Anyway, if you dont' mind, i'd like you to do something very important for me...

click the little purple button and write soemthing in the screen that comes up pertaining to my story...even if it's a flame...just be prepared to recieve a colorful reply.

Anyway, look for a new chapter here in the next couple weeks! (and i apologize if i seem a little hyper today, it's raining outside for the first time in ages and it makes me happy)

colonel Z


	14. i have no idea what the tittle should be

Okay, okay. I know, I should have updated like, forever ago...but for those of you who have bothered to read this author's note and haven't already dismissed any excuse I could offer as something Kakashi would say, things around my house have been a bit rough lately. My parents recently informed me that we are going to be moving in the near future...halfway across the effing country...you can imagine my emotional distress.

ANYWAY. After dealing with my psychotic family over the holidays, I finally wrote a new chapter. There is probably a lot of Occness in this one, and for those of you looking forward to a good battle scene (that is far overdue) you're going to have to wait one more chapter. Why? Because the author is chicken and doesn't write very good battle scenes.

But there is some naruXsaku action! So don't kill me!!

**Disclaimer: If I said I owned Naruto, I would be lying...and the illustrations would be particularly crappy.**

* * *

Sakura let her thoughts drift as she followed Naruto back through the maze of hallways.

Gyro really hadn't been that bad, he actually seemed rather pleasant. She wondered what he'd done to make Naruto have such a bad opinion of him.

**"Probably crack missions."**

"_Oh, come on! Not now!"_

"**Why not now? You're going to be extremely busy for the next few hours. Besides, you need to talk to him **_**before**_** he goes off to fight. What if something happens to him?" **Inner Sakura reasoned.

"_Nothing. Is. Going. To. Happen. To. Him."_ Sakura hissed at her inner self. Even so, she could help but let a wave of unavoidable apprehension wash over her. What if something did happen?

**"See, you are worried. So am I. You have to talk to him."**

Sakura mentally shook her head. _"No, the last thing he needs is us on his mind. He needs to be able to focus, especially with how tired he is; I'm amazed he's even standing! I should wait. I'm the last thing he should be thinking about right now."_

Inner Sakura huffed in frustration. **"Fine, I see your point, I guess. Damn, I hate it when you're right."** With that, she poofed away: leaving Sakura alone in her thoughts.

"Sakura?"

The kunoichi looked up to see Naruto staring at her quizzically. "Hm?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay? You spaced out again, is something wrong?"

Sakura looked down at her feet. "I'm just worried."

Naruto let out a soft chuckle. "About what?"

Sakura glared up at him. "What do you mean 'about what'? You're about to be in the middle of a freaking battle, you moron! What if something happens to you?"

His face softened. "Nothing's going to happened to me Sakura."

"You don't know that." She sniffed. _"Great. Now I'm about to cry, how cliché." _

Inner Sakura made a gagging noise. **"You got that right."**

Naruto sighed. He gently pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her petite waist as she struggled not to cry. "Trust me Sakura, this isn't my first battle. I'm going to be okay."

Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. _"He didn't promise. He's worried too."_

His arms tightened around her, his hands running up and down her back soothingly. "Nothing is going to happen to me." He whispered softly.

"I'm still worried, baka."

"I know."

Sakura sighed, enjoying the comfort of his arms.

Inner Sakura grinned. **"Hey, cliché turned out all right."**

Lina smirked, looking down on the two from the roof of a near by building. "Ha, I totally win Kai. I told you she liked him."

"Fine then, but I win too. I told you he still loved her." Kai smirked appearing next to his sister.

"Well, damn. That's pointless. We need a tie breaker." Lina frowned, crossing her arms.

"Winner takes all?" Kai asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lina snorted. "Of course, what kind of bet would it be if she didn't?"

"You mean he?"

"No I mean she, it's obvious I'm going to win." Lina scoffed, glaring at her brother.

"Yeah right, name your bet." Kai glared back.

"First kiss?" Lina grinned mischievously.

"Deal. I give them two days." Kai declared confidently.

Lina rolled her eyes. "Two days? No way. I give them two _weeks._"

Kai grinned. "Your loss sis."

Lina grinned back. "You mean yours?"

They shook on it.

Lina flipped her snow-white hair back over her shoulder. "Right, now lets get back to the love birds."

The siblings scanned the street below. Kai scowled. "Oh come on! Where'd they go?"

Lina groaned. "Aw man, we missed the good part. Darn it."

"Why do we always miss the good part?" Kai pouted, looking down the street for a glimpse of the two ninjas.

"Because they end up doing what they're supposed to do. Unlike you two lazy lumps of flesh."

Kai paled and his sister turned around to glare at the wolf behind them. "Where have you been, Niagra?"

The queen of the wolves scoffed. "What do you mean where have I been? Where have you been? You two are Gyro's kids, and your father's city is about to be attacked. You have work to do, now get to it."

They scowled at the canine before reluctantly leaping away towards the city's third wall.

Once they were out of earshot, Kai glared at his sister. "A million different wolves to choose from, a million different wolves, and you choose to summon the grumpiest of them all."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up eagle boy."

* * *

The medic nins had turned one of the larger buildings near Fang's third wall into a makeshift hospital. Rooms were being cleaned and sterilized in record time as the nurses and doctors prepared for the onslaught of injuries.

"_It makes sense, the closer an injured shinobi is to medical care, the better chance he has for survival." _Sakura admitted quietly to herself as Naruto sent one of the nurses off to find Lina.

He sighed as he turned her way. "Are you sure you want to do this? Things could get ugly in here."

Sakura scoffed. "Of course I'm ready. Or, have you forgotten who my sensei is?"

Naruto laughed. "No, I haven't forgotten that you're the best medic there is. I'm just saying this building is right in the line of fire. It won't take long for Satarima to figure out we've stationed a hospital here."

"I'm a shinobi too, remember?"

"Yeah, I know, it's just…" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"You're just worried?" She smiled softly and hugged him tightly. "Nothing's going to happen to me, don't worry."

He sighed as he returned the embrace. "Sorry, I can't help it."

"And why is that?" Sakura pulled back gently, staring at the blonde, hoping for the answer she wanted.

Naruto looked nervously at her before opening his mouth to speak.

"Ahem." Kai stood about four feet away, tapping his foot impatiently.

Naruto glared at him, as did Inner Sakura. "**Darn it, now we really do have to wait until this is all over."**

"Sorry to interrupt you two love birds, but Lina sent me up here to get Sakura. She's about to go over station assignments with all the medic nins." Kai sounded absolutely thrilled to be his sister's errand boy for the afternoon. Note the sarcasm, and the fact that he was ticked he'd interrupted what could have been a financially crippling moment for his sister.

Naruto groaned, but pulled away from Sakura none-the-less. She scowled at the loss of warmth.

Kai looked at her sympathetically. "Ready?"

Sakura nodded. With one last glance at the blonde shinobi, she followed Kai through the double set of doors to their right.

She took two steps before she stopped and glanced back over her shoulder. For once, Sakura and Inner Sakura's thoughts were in agreement. _**"Ah, hell with it. I don't want to wait anymore."**_

Kai watched as she turned around and ran back through the double doors. He smirked victoriously. _"Finally. I win sis."_

Naruto was still standing in the main entrance as Sakura came running up to him.

"Naruto!"

He turned around, quirking an eyebrow at her presence. "Sakura? What's wrong?"

She smiled as she came to a stop in front of him, losing herself in his bottomless blue eyes. "Nothing's wrong, I just forgot something."

He opened his mouth to ask her what but was cut off by a pair of lips crashing into his own. He stiffened before giving into the kiss, pulling her closer.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, running her fingers across his face and through his hair. It was sweet, filled with everything she'd wanted to say for years, but hadn't been able to.

Far, far too soon for Sakura's tastes, he pulled back. He leaned his forehead against hers softly, staring into her green eyes. "You have no idea how long I've waited for you to do that."

She grinned. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."

And he kissed her again.

Inner Sakura was having a field day. Fireworks, cheerleaders, heck, even a freaking band were all going off inside Sakura's head. All drowned out by Inner Sakura's shriek for joy. **"Finally!!! She does something right!!!"** A short pause. **"Man, why does she get to be on the outside? Not fair."

* * *

** AN: See? I told you it had some naruXsaku action, I didn't say it would be good. 

sigh Anyway, feel free to tell me how much it sucked and what not...my magic formula for reviews and time between updates is back in place now that I'm emotionally stable again (okay, I might be exaggerating a _little_ but I was still upset). And I apologize if the author's notes sound particuarly snarky, I'm kind of in a bad mood.

Later

Colonel Z


	15. And so It begins

AN: Okay, okay, it's been an inexcussably long time since i updated. I know I know...I'm sorry, I really am.

But now! The good news! I finally wrote the a fight scene and this is the single longest chapter I've ever written! (not that it really removes any blame) sooo...I'll shut up now and get on with the chapter.

**Disclaimer:** you know the drill _thoughts, _text, **and i don't own naruto**

* * *

An astounding number of Fang shinobi lined the outer wall, all ready in defensive positions. A few stragglers who had just finished saying goodbye to wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, and other family were still gathering at the gates. They were watching Naruto and Kai, waiting for a signal.

The two had finally taken a position at the wall's middle turret after checking, re-checking and triple checking everything they could think off. Now, all that was left to do was wait.

Behind them, Lina and Gyro were still leading civilians into the mountain's caverns.

Naruto frowned. It was taking way too long. Satarima would be attacking in less than an hour if Kai's estimate was correct.

He yawned loudly, sitting down next to Kai who was stretched out in the snow. He was staring at the clouds above, judging the amount of light they had left.

"We've got an hour and forty-five minutes of daylight left."

Naruto nodded. "And there's no moon tonight. Even the stars can't help us out because of the cloud cover. We'll be fighting in pitch black."

Kai frowned. "You think they'll still attack in the dark?"

"I'm positive. Otherwise they wouldn't have made themselves known so early. There's no way Satarima would give us the night to prepare for them."

"True. Man, I wish they would though. It'd be nice to get a decent night's sleep."

Naruto laughed bitterly. "I know what you mean." He scowled. _"Gyro, that stupid git. It's his fault I felt like shit." _"No offense eagle boy, but I really hate your dad right now."

Kai laughed, "That makes two of us. Although, I wish I had an incentive to stay awake like you do."

Naruto stared blankly at him. "Oh? What incentive do I have to stay awake?"

"A certain pink haired Konoha kunoichi comes to mind."

Naruto grinned in spite of himself. Kai was right. After years of chasing her, Sakura was finally his. And he'd be damned before he let some spine-less Satarima shinobi bring him down now.

Kai grinned, sensing his partner's determination. _"Satarima won't know what hit them."_ Now if only his sister would hurry up and get the civilians into the mountain they could get on with this battle.

As if on cue, a pile of snow was dumped onto his head.

He heard Naruto laughing as he jumped up, screaming bloody murder at Lina. She fell back into the snow laughing hysterically at the sight of her brother dancing around the turret. _"If that isn't the perfect revenge for the water bucket I don't know what is. I knew this cold wet stuff would prove it's worth sometime."_

The rest of the Fang shinobi could only sweat-drop as their leader's son danced around the turret, cursing.

"Damn it, Lina! I've got snow in my underwear!"

Said fire user was too busy laughing to even hear him.

"Will all three of you shut up? This is hardly the time to be laughing. We have bigger problems than snow up someone's ass."

The three scowled as Gyro made his presence known. He ignored them, focusing out into the woods that sloped down below them. "Kai, how much daylight do we have?"

He answered begrudgingly, shaking the last bit of snow out of his clothes. "An hour and forty minutes."

Gyro nodded. "All right. We can't wait any longer. Naruto, Lina, as much as I hate to destroy part of such a beautiful forest, we need room to fight. Get on with it."

They nodded, knowing exactly what to do.

Naruto jumped up, shaking snow out of his jacket as he headed over to the edge of the turret. He took a deep breath, slowly building up chakra until he felt the wind begin to swirl around him. He crouched down, making a couple of hands signs before thrusting his arms forward.

The wind rushed passed him, following the course his chakra set for it. It whipped around him, rushing with all it's might towards the forest that was spread out below them. Naruto focused it into sharp invisible blades as the wind collided with the trees, turning the once proud wonders into unevenly chopped splinters of wood as it ripped a hundred yards into the forest.

Naruto stood up, grinning as the dust settled. The rest of the shinobi looked on with awe as the now massacred forest became visible.

Gyro stood impassively. "Lina."

She grinned. "On it, pops."

She flew through several hand signs before turning the wood into a blazing inferno. The dancing flames reflected in her eyes as she watched with fascination before Kai rolled his eyes and threw a snowball at her.

Effectively snapped out of her reverie, Lina scowled at him before putting out the flames.

Gyro nodded in approval as she turned around to face him, waiting for further orders.

"All right. I know Satarima isn't exactly the strongest village, but don't let yourselves think that this will be easy." He began, speaking to the gathered shinobi.

"Satarima has achieved a feat that should have been impossible. That alone shows that they have more tricks up their sleeves than we thought. You know where the hospitals are; watch out for one another. Naruto, station yourself near the southwest turret. Lina, take the southeast, and Kai, you take the south. Don't let me down."

The three nodded, heading off silently to their positions.

Naruto landed heavily on the southwest turret. He nodded to the surrounding shinobi as he took his place in the ranks. Nervously, he glanced back into the city, his eyes finding the building he knew Sakura was working in.

He smiled to himself before stifling a yawn. He groaned. Why did Satarima have to attack now? All he wanted to do was go back to Sakura and say all the things he'd wanted to say for so long. He wanted to kiss her again, to hold her in his arms again.

Lina's whistle snapped him to focus. That was the signal. They were here.

* * *

Naruto was not a happy camper. Not by a long shot. No matter how many ninja he took down, more took their place.

"What the hell?! Are they multiplying or something?!"

The blonde ducked as an aggravated Lina threw her giant boomerang weapon…thingy…whatever she called it, towards the group of ninjas surrounding him.

He heard a muffled 'sorry' before Lina turned her attention back to her own opponents.

* * *

Lina was getting increasingly frustrated as well. Her usual excitement and borderline obsession with a good fight were fading. She was tired, and her performance was slipping. She cried out in pain as one of the Satarima shinobi managed to embed a kunai in her stomach.

Lina swore loudly before charbroiling the man and those surrounding him. She ripped the kunai out and jumped back to the wall, taking a breather to heal her wound. She sighed in relief as her chakra flooded her system.

Lina glanced around her, observing the battlefield. Words could not describe how big of a mess it was. Even with her bloodline ability to see in the dark Lina could barely tell friend from foe.

The beginnings of a bright orange glow caught her eye as she heard a roar of frustration from the southwest turret. _"Crap, Naruto's losing it."_

* * *

Naruto stopped, reining his chakra back into his body. Now was not the time to lose control over the Kyuubi. He jumped back, avoiding a cluster of senbons thrown in his direction.

He grunted, grabbing hold of an arm that was attempting to punch him, twisting it until it snapped. He kicked the opposing ninja in the chest before dropping him to dodge another shinobi's jutsu.

The snarl of the king of foxes sounded to his left, and Naruto whipped around. Taka was busy dismembering a cluster of shinobi, his size twice that of his normal perfered mass. His dusty gray chakra glowed in the dark as it lashed out at their enemies.

Naruto stared for a split second, wondering what had caused the fox to flip out. He hissed under his breath as he saw the katana buried in the canine's right flank.

A blur of white crashed into his chest as Niagra tackled him to the ground, saving him from being impaled with the giant shiriken sailing through the air.

The wolf growled at him. "Get you head back, kid. If we're going to come out of this alive, you need to keep your sleep-deprived mind from getting distracted."

Naruto nodded sheepishly, ashamed of himself. He jumped up as soon as Niagra got off, wasting no time in resuming his attack.

Niagra was right. He couldn't get distracted, he'd promised Sakura he'd be fine. And he'd be damned if he let Satarima take him down.

* * *

Sakura chanced a glance out the window. Not that she could really see anything. It was pitch black outside, the only exceptions being the fires that had ignited from various ill-aimed fire jutsus.

She frowned, her brow creasing with worry. How would Naruto make it through this? He was running on empty.

She shook her head vigorously, Naruto would be fine. He'd promised her. And Naruto always kept his promises. Besides, he'd pulled miracles out of his hat in worse situations.

Sakura let the chakra flow through her hands as she focused on healing her newest patient. It was a never ending stream of the wounded and the dieing. She silently thanked her sensei for the endless hours of ER duty.

She smiled as she watched the wound close; the flesh flowing back together under her fingertips. Another life saved, another reminder of why she enjoyed being a medic-nin so much. She bit her lip as one of the nurses wheeled the patient away. Sakura looked out the window again. There was another fire on the horizon, burning at the south edge of the fight. _"Kai…"_

Something crashed behind her and her mind refocused on the task at hand. She took several deep breaths as she began working on her next patient.

She wanted so badly to be out there fighting with them; causing creators in the frozen earth with her fists. But for now, she would have to make do with fighting against the invasion in the only way she was allowed.

* * *

Kai howled in pain as he sat down in the snow, dousing the fire that had ravaged his pants. The hiss of water evaporating circled around his ears before the more dominant sounds of the battle resurfaced.

He jumped up, slamming his foot down on the ground as he landed. He sent his chakra through the earth, almost laughing as a slab of rock flipped up and collided with several shinobi. _Almost_.

He turned to face the flame that had injured him earlier. _"Wonderful…now I'm a firefighter. Where's Lina when you need her?"_

He bent down, trusting his near by comrades to cover him as he dug through the snow until he could feel the dirt underneath. He pulled up another wall of earth, letting the snow slide off of the slab and onto the fire.

He grinned at his handy work for a split second before remembering where he was. It was truly amazing really, his ability to forget that he was in the midst of battle. Even _he_ admitted it was going to get him killed one day.

Kai dodged an incoming cloud of shiriken and swung his knee into the gut of a near by enemy. He dodged a fist as the man crumpled to the ground. Kai snatched the man's discarded sword off of the ground and began using it to continue cutting down the seemingly endless ranks of Satarima.

* * *

Naruto yelled in frustration. He formed a rasengan in his hand, throwing it into the Satarima ranks. Without his chakra flow to sustain it the sphere exploded like a bomb.

Niagra grunted in approval at his side. The wolf had joined him in the fight after Taka had retreated behind the wall to lick his wounds.

And they were _still_ getting nowhere.

"Where the hell are they all coming from?!" Naruto shouted, not really expecting an answer.

"Wouldn't you love to know?"

The blonde pivoted, turning to face the voice. Auoshi was standing among the fighting shinobi, his hands stuffed nonchalantly in his pockets as if he weren't completely surrounded by war.

"How did you-"

Auoshi laughed. "Once again, wouldn't you love to know." He grinned wickedly before shifting his stance ever so slightly.

But Naruto noticed, he met Auoshi halfway, his hands all ready flying through seals.

* * *

AN: What did you think? I don't normally like to beg for reviews but I am seriously pleading for feedback on this fight scene, loved it, hated it, want to flame it, ANYTHING. I really want to know the honest truth on how I did and how I can improve.

So please click the purple-ish button bellow!!

I'm not going to finish the fight scene untill i get some feedback on the part I've already written, but hopefully I'll get some good reviews!! (and I'm all settled in my new house now with internet so I have no more legit excuses for not updating. I have no friends here anyway.)

colonelZ


	16. This is Rediculous

_AN: I've been thinking for a while about what I would write here...but the truth is: I have no excuse. I had really bad writers block and I just didn't have it in me to work on this story. However, those of you who are still sticking with me, just joining the story and managed to make it through the first 15 chapters that really need to be re-written, or just got the random email about a story you forgot about a long time ago, you have my most humble apologies. _

_I tried to makes this one longer for you, hope you enjoy,_

colonelZ

_**Warning:** I'm not so great a judging levels of violence, but this chapter is more graphic than the others, and there's more language to. Be reminded that this is rated T._

_**Disclaimer: No. I do not own Naruto. It would never be updated on time if I did. Ever. (oc's are mine though, hands off unless you have permission.)**_

* * *

_This is ridiculous_, Lina thought as she decapitated another nameless enemy and moved on to the next one. No matter what she did, no matter how many she killed they just kept coming. Satarima had never outnumbered them this badly. They didn't even have a big enough _population_ to outnumber Fang like this. Their original estimates of the invading army's size had to be wrong. This was more than five thousand. Satarima was working with someone, another village, that was the only option…unless-

Lina stopped short, her kunai inches from the jugular of another soon to be dead Satarima shinobi…except this one looked like it had already been killed. There was a kunai sticking out of the man's forehead and various senbon were imbedded in his flesh in ways she was fairly certain were fatal. So why was he still attacking her?

_They're raising the dead. Shit, it's a necromancy jutsu!_

She scanned the battle field, sure enough, where dead bodies should have littered the ground, only the corpses of Fang shinobi lay. _Okay, think Lina. How do you beat a necromancy jutsu? _She yelped as someone jabbed her with a kunai, breaking her concentration. But it was useless anyway. She had never been much of a studier in the academy, preferring to go on instinct. She had no idea what to do.

_Kai! Kai studied with Hirui, he would know._ With that the wolf girl snarled at her current opponent, ran him through with his own sword, and dashed off to the south turret to find her brother.

Meanwhile Naruto was grappling with an extremely irritating Auoshi. The man just couldn't keep his mouth shut. The blonde could only hope he'd been at least half as annoying to his opponents when he was younger.

Niagra had left as soon as the fight had started to check on Lina, figuring the kid could take care of himself. Naruto wished she'd stayed.

Auoshi shot him a shit eating grin. "Aww, is the Gyro's precious little golden boy getting tired? Can he not fight without his fox?"

Naruto felt rage boiling up inside of him. This was bad, really, really bad. He was exhausted, out of chakra, and Auoshi was slowly gaining the upper hand. Oh, and there was the whole problem where he was about to lose control of the Kyuubi. That was bad too, though he was beginning to wonder if it might be worth it just to watch that grin slide off Auoshi's face.

Auoshi laughed at his frustration and promptly took his legs out from under him. They were wrestling on the ground now, each doing their best to pound the other's face in. It was looking less like a ninja fight and more like a bar room brawl.

Finally he saw an opening and rammed his knee into the smuggler's groin, not even feeling the least bit sorry about the cheap shot. It there was one thing Gyro had taught him, it was that there was no such thing as a fair fight.

Auoshi howled in pain but Naruto kept pressing his advantage, kicking his opponent off of him and charging again.

Lina snarled in frustration, she had failed completely in locating her brother. The south battlefield was in chaos, Satarima was almost to the main wall. A scream caught her attention and she whirled around to her left. She knew that scream.

* * *

Kai was fairly angry at himself as he dropped to his knees, a katana through his chest. He couldn't have paid attention for two more seconds? Seriously?

He tried to get back up, really he did. But he didn't have Naruto's endurance; he'd been fighting the blackness around the edges of his vision for a while now. His mind was already at the breaking point; his chakra had been gone for almost an hour. His head was pounding, his body was aching, and hell, it even hurt to breath. _So why am I still trying?_ For the life of him, he couldn't remember.

* * *

Panic is a strange emotion, it overwhelms your senses, keeps you from thinking straight. From day one shinobi are taught to fight against the panic, to always remain in control. The teachers never mention how hard that is when you're watching your brother die. Lina was at his side in seconds, pouring the last of her chakra into his body. There was blood everywhere, she'd seen worse in the hospital, but it had never been Kai's blood before. Never this much blood.

She kept her hands on the wound, trying to slow the bleeding. Niagra appeared at her side, touching her nose to Lina's arm in comfort. "We need to get him to one of the medic stations, he can still make it!"

The great wolf nodded, and allowed Lina to pull him onto her back. Lina was about to climb on herself when the wolf stood.

"What the hell are you doing? I'm coming with you!"

Niagra lowered her head to look the girl in the eye. "You, little one, are needed here. I will watch over your brother."

Lina started to protest but her summon didn't give her a chance. She was already weaving her way through the disorder towards the hospital. She didn't need to be here, she needed to be with her brother. She was best medic in Fang and her brother needed the best right now. Gyro's little princess howl in rage and frustration; her worry dissolving into mind numbing madness as she went back to lopping off heads. She would get revenge for her brother, even if she had to dismember ever ninja in Satarima's army with her bare hands.

Sakura felt her stomach drop as she watched Niagra shove her way through doors of the make shift hospital. Her white fur was stained with blood that was still streaming from the shinobi on her back. _Please, please don't let it be him._ Later, she would feel a little guilty for the sigh of relief that escaped her when she caught sight of Kai's brown locks hanging limply from the wolf's back.

The medic in her jumped to attention, helping the canine gently lower the almost lifeless teenager to the floor. Her hands went straight to the source of the red river, putting pressure on the jagged hole in the left side of his torso. "Hey, I need a gurney over hear, and some space to operate, he's bleeding into his lungs!"

Two nurses heard her over the clamor and rushed over to help. Niagra backed away, shrinking in size to give them room. "Will he live?"

Sakura looked up, slightly surprised by the genuine concern in the wolf's eyes. "I don't know, but I'll do the best I can."

"And just what is your best, child?" She growled.

The kunoichi steeled her gaze, indignant. "The best Konoha has to offer besides the Godaime herself. Now let me work."

Niagra gave her a wolfy smile, seemingly satisfied, and slipped through the doors as the medic-nin refocused on her newest patient.

Kai really was in bad shape. A punctured lung accompanied by various other wounds from the fight would have been a touch and go situation for even anyone. But Kai's body was exhausted, there was no energy left to fight through the pain. And he wasn't breathing.

Sakura worked quickly and began draining the blood from his lungs immediately. There was no way to know how long he'd gone without oxygen. They wouldn't find out until he was stable if there was any damage, but to even get that far she had to get him breathing again.

* * *

It wasn't until Lina almost sent a giant shuriken into the side of a giant fox that she came back to her senses.

Taka snarled, and swiftly pinned her to the ground. "**Calm down, you annoying child.**" The fox growled, getting her attention. "You're doing more damage than good and the last thing we need is for both of you to end of in the hospital. Go rest behind the wall until you get your breath back and then fight like a shinobi, not an annoying, mindless monster. I'm going to help Naruto, he's fading fast. I can see the beginnings of a tail."

Lina blinked a few times taking gasping breaths, her lungs burning with lack of oxygen. She turned her head, surveying the result of her blind rage. Death littered the ground, her body and her weapons covered in blood. The surrounding area was a complete massacre, but judging from the pain spreading through every area of her body, she hadn't come out unscathed. Everything hurt so much that she wasn't even sure if she could move. Her mind drifted back to the collection of corpses surrounding her; there was something she needed to remember…

"Taka, wait!"

He turned his head back to the gasping girl, already on his way to the southwest turret.

"It's a necromancy jutsu! Every time we kill them, they just get right back up a few minutes later. I don't know how to stop it!" She glanced back over at the dead surrounding her as she spoke. At least _those_ bastards were staying dead.

The fox nodded. "It's quite simple. Just kill the necromancer," he yelled back as he trotted off through the carnage towards Naruto.

Lina let her head drop, no longer able to find the strength to hold it up. At least someone knew what was going on. Kill the necromancer…ridiculous, she should have thought of that.

A white head filled her vision, Niagra's yellow eyes dark with fury. "What am I going to do with you? What were you thinking, you idiot…"

The rant was muffled as the wolf took a mouthful of Lina's jacket and began dragging her toward the wall. The message was lost anyway; the girl had already given in to exhaustion. Her last charge had earned her the right to sleep.

Naruto felt the Kyuubi's chakra flowing through him, but he really didn't care. He just wanted Auoshi dead, was that really too much to ask? He just wanted this whole mess to be over and go find Sakura.

He really didn't understand why Auoshi didn't just use ninjutsu on him. Surely the man must have realized his advantage. Instead, the smuggler was still just fighting hand to hand. Not that he wasn't wining anyway, but the battle could have been over fifteen minutes ago if Auoshi had just-

Naruto's train of thought came to an abrupt halt as a swift kick into his chest brought him to his knees. That had definitely broken some ribs. He coughed violently, tasting blood. Yep, definitely some ribs. He reacted as quickly as he could, fighting through the pain to tackle Auoshi's legs and bring him to the ground.

By luck, mostly, Naruto managed to grab a hold of him from behind, trying to pin the kicking and punching smuggler beneath him. The toxic chakra of the Kyuubi was burning Auoshi's skin as it quickly surrounded both fighters. The man howled in pain.

Naruto growled, adjusted his grip and twisted. There was a sickening snap, and the screaming stopped.

So did almost all of Satarima's advancing army.

The battle ground stilled as the resurrected shinobi finally fell. The remaining few quickly started dashing for the trees as soon as they realized their failure. Fang quickly gave chase, letting their night vision guide them.

Naruto was completely oblivious. The Kyuubi's chakra was being drawn back inside the seal, leaving its host devoid of energy.

"Well, I think we've found our annoying necromancer," Taka joyfully concluded as he watched humans scurrying around him, his eyes easily seeing through the dark. His humor was lost on Naruto.

His eyes narrowed. "How long have you been there?"

The fox's ear twitched. "About five minutes."

"AND IT DIDN'T OCCUR TO YOU TO HELP ME?"

"No, not really. That would have been much more annoying. You need to improve your taijutsu by the way, you almost let him win."

"IF I COULD MOVE RIGHT NOW, SO HELP ME I WOULD-"

Taka's ear twitched and his gray eyes widened. He hadn't been aware that the kit knew that kind of language.

* * *

AN_: There you have it, the battle at Fang is finally over, though this story is far from it. I'll wrap up a few loose ends next chapter about what exactly went on. Feel free to ask questions._

_Please review. Please, please, please review. Consider it your good deed for the day._

_Hope you enjoyed,_

_~colonelZ_


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